After All These Years
by amwucheraller
Summary: After college Beca and Jesse head off to LA to follow their dreams. As years go by they go their separate ways only to find themselves working with each other again. Has the love faded over the years or will they find themselves together again
1. Chapter 1

Barden seemed like a million years ago. It has been eight years since graduation, eight years since Beca and Jesse packed their lives up and moved across the country to Los Angeles to follow their dreams. Eight years since Beca's Dad helped put first and last month's rent down on a little apartment in the city. Eight years since they scrimped and saved to get by while looking for their dream jobs. Eight years since their lives had begun.

In the beginning it has been hard but they had had each other. Beca took a job at a coffee shop that let her play her mixes. While it wasn't what she wanted it paid the bills while she looked for a job in the industry. Jessie lucked out right away; Cutting Edge a well known scoring company based in the UK was opening an office in LA. The company was staffing from the bottom up and Jesse was in the right place at the right time. His was hired for an entry level position but his determination and enthusiasm helped him work his way up. Within a year he was holding the position of music coordinator and helping the music supervisors score their movies, it would be only a matter of time before he was given the supervisors positions.

Never one to be second Beca stepped up her efforts to find her dream job. Every other night she was DJing at a party or club, anywhere she could get her music out there. But it was her silly coffee shop gig that ended up getting her music in the ears of the right people. It was almost closing time, Beca was sweeping up and blaring one of her newest tracks just a little too loud. "Who is this?" asked a middle aged customer waiting for a drink her coworker was fixing. After explaining it was hers the customer gave her a once over then nodded to the broom in her hand, "I guess we all have to start somewhere. This is good… Here is my card, if you have more stuff like this, drop it off." The card said he was a producer for SoundBox Music, a smaller company in the industry but one that was getting a lot of attention for producing hot tracks. She dropped off her music the next day, two weeks later she was their newest employee.

Life was great. They were both where they wanted to be, spending their days on their passions and their nights with each other. As time went by though their careers became more demanding. They were spending more time with their coworkers than with each other, and while they both understood and supported each other completely the magic that had once been present in their relationship began to fade away.

They had been in LA for three years when Jesse's company offered him a supervisor position, total control scoring movies, everything he had dreamt of, but it was at their UK office in London. Jesse said no, Beca said yes, they would make it work; there was no way she would stand in the way of his dream. So he took the job. A week before Jesse moved the two decided to call it quits. They loved each other and always would but they had grown apart and this move gave them the opportunity to say goodbye on good terms. The spent the last week packing up and making love, then they said goodbye and faced their new lives without each other.

That was six years ago. They had stayed in contact in the beginning sending emails and updating each other about their lives. They had even seen each other once. A year after the move they both met up at Donald and Lilly's wedding. They smiled and hugged and felt the instant attraction. They spent the weekend bantering back and forth and hanging out with all their friends just like old times. The wedding night they found themselves in Beca's hotel room drunkenly making love until the early hours. But the next day they had to go back to reality, they found themselves back at the airport heading in different directions. After that all communication stopped. They knew that they loved each other but they needed to let go, they figured time would lessen the love and they would both be happier without each other. Six years had done the trick.

"Beep beep beep beep," sounded the alarm on Beca's night stand.

"Aughhh, whyyyyy?" Grumbled Beca as she hit the alarm and covered her head with her pillow. It had been a long weekend and Beca was in no mood to get up. Saturday had been Ella's third birthday party, Beca loved her God daughter with all her heart, but she could only handle so many screaming toddlers, and of course Chloe had invited a million three year olds to her daughter's birthday.

Since the girls were all in town for their favorite aca-nieces birthday, Beca spent the rest of the weekend taking them around to all of the hot spots in town. She, Fat Amy, and Stacy had even gone out Sunday night to Avalon a popular LA club. Beca had done some DJing at the club over the years so she was able to get the girls in as VIP's. After a few hours of drinking and dancing the girls hopped on their red eyes and Beca wearily made it back to her place.

That is how Beca found herself bright and early on Monday morning, exhausted and slightly hung-over heading into work. She knew it was going to be a long day, Friday night her boss has couriered over a package regarding her new super secretive project. Apparently she was going to do some tracks for a movie. There had already been a lot of talk about this film in the media, there were a lot of big names attached to it and the actors had been butting heads. Beca assumed this was the reason the film was in its current predicament, completely over budget and way off of its required timeline. From the info she read in the package she received, the film was supposed to be done with post production, it should have been edited and sitting on a shelf waiting for its premier one month away, but it wasn't.

From what she read the film already had 60% of its scoring done, all that was left was the special tracks that they wanted from her. She gathered from the note typed out by the scoring company that they had been brought on last minute too. They didn't sound too pleased to be doing a rushed job, but sometimes this is how the film industry works. One of the reasons Beca preferred not to work on films, but someone working on the film requested her and her boss had said yes, wasn't that kind of him.

After thirty minutes in traffic Beca was walking into the studio. She had an hour before her meeting with the music supervisor on this film and she wanted to review the tracks that they had sent her. She had listened to them Friday night and again after Ella's birthday party, but the Bellas had demanded her attention, after all it wasn't every day that they were all together. So she hadn't gotten to give the music as much attention as she wanted. What she had heard she liked. Whoever had put together this score was good. The music had it all, suspense, romance, it evoked happiness and melancholy if she didn't know better she would have guessed that Jesse had score this movie, but she knew he hadn't . First Jesse was a million miles away living it up in the UK and whoever scored this had a SoCal zip code and second Jesse worked on blockbusters. He had already earned himself two Academy Award nominations for his scores, and once you earned one of those you don't take jobs for little hip hop films, even if they have a start studded cast.

As Beca set her bag down on her desk her assistant Angela popped her head in, "How ya feelin' Miss Party Animal?"

"Excuse me? That is completely inappropriate, how dare you speak that way with your boss?" Beca smiled at her assistant letting her know she didn't mean anything she was saying.

"Oh I am so sorry, after all that drunken debauchery last night I thought you could use some coffee, I meant no offence." Angela handed Beca a coffee and then went to sit at the spare chair in the room, "I am not sure I have seen three women more drunk on a Sunday night." Angela laughed as Beca groaned and took a sip of her coffee.

"They are insane! Thanks for going with us last night," said Beca as she pulled the scored music out of the bag and plugged it into her Macbook.

"Hey any time I get to hear stories about the tough DJ Beca singing a capella in an all girls group I am there!" Angela laughed and shook her head, "I think you appointment is here early. I saw a really hot guy get here a few minutes ago and go into Phil's office. Do you want me to check?"

"Ugh. Of course they are early." Beca started scrolling through her hard drive looking for a track she had done a few months back that would work well with the already complied score.

"Yeah tell Phil I am here and that I will be in in a sec, I just want to review this one more time," she smiled up at her assistant and went back to work, slipping a pair of headphones over her ears.

Jesse sat in a chair across from the head of the studio and smiled as the man prattled on about how honored he was that his team was chosen to help get this film out of a bind. "Beca is awesome, she will get these tracks finished for you in no time, then you can work your magic and get it all turned over to the editors."

Jesse smiled, he knew Beca was awesome that is why he had suggested her to his friend John when he came begging Jesse to help him out of his bind. He had met John a few years back while scoring a film, back then John had been an assistant producer. This was John's first solo project and it had all gone to hell. He needed someone to score his film fast and he wanted some unique tracks that could be played in the clubs and even get some radio play, he needed positive exposure anything that would distract people from all the shit being said about the production problems with the film.

Jesse had said yes. He was setting up his new offices and didn't have any current project, plus he could see desperation in John's eyes and he didn't want to be the guy to let him down. And it gave him a chance to see Beca. He had avoided any attempts to contact her since he had gotten back but he didn't want to wait any longer. He passed on a cd he had acquired of Beca's current work, one that had been passed to him in secrecy from Donald that Beca had sent to Lilly. He also pointed out some popular radio songs that he knew Beca had done the tracks for. It took a day for John to get back to him saying he was sold and had already set up a meeting with her company.

There was a knock on the door and a tall blond poked her head in the doorway, "Hey Phil, Bec's in her office, she said she needs a few minutes to run through the tracks and then she will be right in."

Phil looked at Jesse and smile, then turned back to the blond, "We were just going to head over there right now I am sure Mr. Swanson won't mind going over the tracks with her." Phil signaled for Jesse to stand as the blond pushed the door open and stepped in, the look on her face clearly asked, 'are you insane.' "Whatever, it's your life. You know how she feels about being interrupted."

Phil and the blond exchanged glances and then proceeded out of the office. Jesse smiled to himself, he knew all too well how pissed Beca could be when you interrupt her working on her music. He liked that things hadn't changed too much in the last six years.

She was so enraptured by the music that she didn't notice people standing outside of her door in the hallway. She had finally located the song she was looking for and she was playing it alongside the other music that had been scored. "It is perfect," she thought to herself it was enough like the other music that it wouldn't seem out of place but it was a solid track something that would set the particular scene it was meant for apart. She would just have to tweak it a bit, try it out with the scene to make sure it really worked and then convince the guy in charge that it was the right song for the movie. "One down five more to go," she thought to herself. She pulled her headphones off just as the door to her office swung open, the sound of it made her spin her seat around. Phil had one foot in her office but his body was turned towards someone in the hall, she could hear him talking about how one of her tracks just made its way onto the top ten billboard chart. As much as she appreciated her boss bragging about her accomplishments she did not enjoy him not listening to her, didn't she just fucking say she would need a few minutes and then _she _would come to him?

Beca pushed back her irritation, she was definitely going to give Phil an earful but it was probably not the best time to do it. But as Phil turned to face her that thought went right out of her mind. The smirk he gave her let her know that he knew she would be pissed but he didn't care. "Your ability to follow simple tasks is fucking amazing Phil," Beca sneered at her boss.

Phil smiled, "Good morning to you too! I have someone here I want you to meet." Phil stepped into her office and motioned for someone to follow. Beca pulled her seat out from her desk and stood up to face them.

Beca knew that Phil was talking, it sounded like he said, "Beca this is…" but the rest of his sentence and anything else he said was unheard. Standing in her doorway was Jesse.


	2. Chapter 2

Jesse?" Beca asked in surprise, her eyes burning into his.

"Hey Beca." Jesse flashed her his most dazzling smile.

"I..how…what the hell," stammered Beca moving from behind her desk and walking towards the two men.

Phil looked between Beca and Jesse with a bemused look upon his face, "I take it you two know each other? Well great!" he said enthusiastically, "No need to waste time with introductions, you two get to work. We have a short deadline on this thing Beca…" Phil checked his two companions out again and realized the two were not listening. He chuckled to himself, "I will just see myself out then. " He walked past Jesse who was clearly lost in Beca's eyes. Angela, Beca's assistant had popped her head into the office to watch the exchange; she too had a bemused look upon her face. Clearly there was something going on between these two. She pulled the door shut behind Phil and gave him a wink.

The sound of the door shutting pulled them both out of their daze. Beca blinked a few times and shook her head, "Uh, alright then," she smiled up at Jesse and then headed over to her desk chair. She motioned for him to take a seat in her spare chair across the desk from her. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into her seat, a smile across her face. "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in London." She riffled through the papers on her desk, the ones that had been sent to her from the scoring company, she was looking for the company logo. "Are you not with Cutting Edge anymore?"

Jesse smiled; he always enjoyed a flustered Beca, "I left the company. I thought it was time to start my own business so about two months ago I packed up and moved back here. And what about you? The last time I talked to you, you said you were a lifer with SoundBox, I was kind of shocked to hear you weren't there anymore."

Beca reached for her coffee and took a sip. "Yeah, I was. I, I still love them, but as the company grew they started going in a different direction. It just didn't feel right anymore so I took a job here. I still work with them though, whenever a project allows me to. But…" Beca stopped talking and just looked at Jesse for a second, "you're back," she didn't phrase it as a question, just a statement.

"I'm back," Jesse confirmed. The two stared at each other for another few seconds and then both smiled. "So what do you think about this movie?" And like that the reunion was over and they stated to work. They worked through the next nine hours reviewing his tracks and discussing why he chose them. Beca played him the song she had found and of course he loved it. The two searched through music Beca and the rest of the studio had already recorded. They picked three pieces with popular artists doing the vocals, they would definitely get radio play if they were in the film.

"I will have Angela get in touch with their representation. We will have to get their permission to use these tracks in the movie, hopefully it won't take too long but there is no guarantee," Beca explained as she wrote the artists names and song information down for her assistant. She called her assistant in and got up to discuss the task she needed her to accomplish.

Jesse took the opportunity to check out Beca. She looked great; the years had been really good to her. Her hair was up in its usual braided fashion, that was still the same, but her makeup was different. She still had her eyes lined but it was less, lighter. She had on long earrings and was wearing a long tunic like shirt with tight pants and heeled ankle boots. All these years in LA had definitely taught her how to dress. She was stylish but not overly so, and there was still an edge to her. She looked grown up. Jesse smiled to himself; he liked the way she looked.

He had been surprised by the emotions she made him feel when he first saw her. He had been excited and a little nervous, those emotions he had expected. What he hadn't expected was the white hot desire. One look at her and everything had come back; the softness of her skin under his hands, the taste of her beneath his lips. He was overwhelmed by memories of her; it shocked him how after all this time he still wanted her.

"So give everyone a call and then you can head home. I am sure we will have lots to do tomorrow so get some rest," Beca handed the list to her assistant and smiled.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Angela asked faking insult. "Could this have anything to do with the really hot man you have had locked away inside your office all day?"

"Just call and go," Beca said.

"Who is he? The way he is staring at you right now makes me think some kind of lover. No, there is something deeper there, were you in a cult, did he worship you as some kind of goddess?" Angela laughed at the look on Beca's face.

"Shut up! None of your business. Go make these calls and go home." Beca rolled her eyes at her assistant and turned to walk back in her office door. Beca looked over at Jesse, his eyes darted to the papers on her desk and he began unceremoniously stacking them up. Had he been staring at her? She looked at him.

He still looked good. He had shown up wearing his 'uniform' at least that is what she had called it while they were together, jeans, a button down and blazer on top. After an hour or so working he had shed the blazer and rolled up his sleeves, his arms were toned. She couldn't see the rest of his body but she knew what it would look like, smooth and toned, muscles in all the right places. Jesse had taken to the gym after college, he always joked that he had to keep looking good to keep her attention, he clearly still worked out.

She was surprised that after all this time she notice the little changes. There was a dusting of gray around his temples, so faint most people wouldn't notice, and there were soft lines by his eyes. She knew the lines were from smiling, he smiled all the time and it was bound to leave a mark on him. She exhaled loudly and then smiled.

"I guess we should call it a night," she said to him as she sat down at her desk.

"Yeah, we got a lot of work done," Jesse said back. He hesitated a second and then, "do you want to grab dinner?" He looked at her across the desk not sure how she would respond. They had worked well together all day, there had been some light bantering but for the most part they were all business.

"Sure," Beca leaned back in her chair, "where are you living?"

"Oh, I found a little place in Whitley Heights," Jesse replied.

"Ok, my place is out in Hollywood Heights, they are right next to each other." She sat thinking for a second, a wicked grin spread across her face, "I know the perfect place."

Jesse looked at her, he couldn't help but laugh at the smile that was spreading across her face, "should I be afraid?" he asked.

"You will love it!" Beca grabbed her jacket and bag, pulling out her keys and motioned for him to follow her out the door.

Beca hit end on her cell and checked her rearview mirror. Jesse was still behind her. Jesse. 'What the hell' she thought to herself. This is all so crazy. For years she had made a point of not thinking about him and now she couldn't think of anything else. Over the years people would casually bring him up, he was always mentioned in stories about the good old days. And occasionally their mutual friends would give her updates on what he was doing, she would always say to pass on her well wishes and then quickly change the subject. Chloe would bring him up not so causally, "Maybe you should get back together with Jesse," she would say every time she ended a relationship. "Chloe I haven't seen Jesse in years. There is nothing between us! You seriously need to get over this!" Beca would respond.

She thought back to the day she told Chloe that she and Jesse were breaking up. "No! You can't," Chloe had cried, "you guys are great together, you are just going through a rough patch, you guys will work through it and it will be ok."

"It's not a rough patch Chloe, we have grown apart, the spark just isn't there anymore. We both have these new lives that need all of our attention and, well, this is just the right thing for us to do," Beca responded lamely.

"Beca relationships take work, there are times when things aren't great but when you love someone you deal, I know you guys love each other. Look at me, I have been married for four years, he totally annoys the hell out of me but we make it work," Chloe said while offering her friend a sympathetic smile.

Beca had smiled at her best friend, "the love will lesson as time goes by, this is the right thing to do." But Beca had been wrong because the love hadn't lessoned over time, she had figured that out the hard way after on Donald and Lilly's wedding.

They had been so caught up in each other that they didn't take the time to think about what they were doing. The next morning when she woke up in Jesses arms she had known it had been a mistake. She loved him and in his arms is where she belonged, but she couldn't feel that way. So she had pushed it down, put on a brave face and played it off like their night of passionate love making had just been a fun romp, nothing at all. She had hugged him goodbye and said a few jokes as she watched him get on the plane, then she sat down at her terminal and silently cried. After that she had cut off all communication. She knew if she called him, if she heard his voice, she would beg him to come home. She would tell him that she loved him and that she couldn't live without him. But she knew she couldn't do that, she couldn't interfere with his dreams. So she pushed it all away and as time went by she thought of him less and she figured she had been right, time would lessen the love.

But here she was, years later and she knew she still loved him.

Jesse followed Beca's car into the Casa Vega parking lot. He shook his head and laughed to himself as he stepped out of the car. "You are kidding me right?" he laughed, "or are you showing off?"

Beca walked toward Jesse, "I don't know what you are talking about," she said with a smile. The two turned towards the restaurant and walked in. The restaurant was dark giving it an air of privacy, a lanky brunet dressed all in black looked at them and said, "May I help you?"

"Beca Mitchell," Beca said to the woman, then turned to Jesse and winked.

"Oh yes," the brunet said, "right this way. Ms. Vega just called; we have a table for you in the back." She escorted the two through the restaurant until they reached a secluded table, she handed them menus as they sat down and then left them.

"I am impressed," Jesse said with a smile.

Beca beamed, "It was nothing."

"No clearly it's something, I would know, I tried for weeks to get a reservation here and nothing. We decided to eat dinner, what, twenty minutes ago, and we have a private room in the back. You are a celebrity." He bowed his head and placed his hands over his heart, then looked up at her from under his lashes and laughed.

They had been living in LA for a few months, it seemed like everyone was obsessed with celebrities, where they are, where they shopped, what they were doing. Beca thought it was all pretty lame but she had heard of a restaurant they liked to frequent, Casa Vega. It was dark and private and played great music-just what a celebrity would want. Their anniversary was coming up and she thought it might be a fun place to go eat. She mentioned it to Jesse and he said he would take care of it. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. He called to make a reservation and they said they were booked solid. He tried back multiple times hoping for a cancelation, he drove to the restaurant and slipped the maitre d' some cash-still nothing. Finally he broke down and made a reservation somewhere else. The night of their anniversary Beca was a little disappointed but he managed to distracter with a promise for a future reservation and some passionate kisses. They had never made it out there.

But here they were all these years later. Jesse shook off the memories and smiled at Beca. "So this is what life is like for Beca Mitchell now? First class all the way," he teased.

"Not really, I played some music at a party for the owner once and she said she would get me in whenever I wanted. I didn't actually know if I could get a hold of her, how embarrassing would that have been if I made us drive over here and couldn't get us in." They both laughed at the thought, the waiter came back and they realized they hadn't even checked out the menu. After some time they placed their orders and were enjoying a complimentary bottle of wine sent over from the owner, Jesse smiled and shook his head when it arrived, Beca blushed.


	3. Chapter 3

It was late, late enough for Ella to be deep in sleep and for Chloe and Tom to be in bed. Beca put her phone down, "Tom would be pissed if I woke him up," she thought, "But Chloe would be even more pissed if she didn't tell her what was going on. Beca hesitated, the remnants of the wine canceled out any good manners and Beca called her best friend.

"Hello," answered a sleepy voice.

"Chloe it's me Beca."

"Its twelve o'clock at night! Her house had better be burning down," she heard Tom say in the background.

Chloe sleepily murmured into the phone, "Is your house on fire?"

"What?! No! Chloe wake up, Jesse is back in town," Beca said excitedly.

Beca could hear Chloe sit up and Tom grumble, Chloe ignored whatever her husband said and talked into the phone, "What? How do you know? Did he call you? Did you see him somewhere?"

Before Beca could answer she heard Tom tell Chloe to go onto other room. She could hear Chloe open a door and then stumble on something, "shit, stupid toys…" a few seconds later Chloe spoke into the phone again, "alright what happened, tell me all about it!"

"He showed up at my work today. He is here to work on that silly hip hop movie," Beca answered.

"Oh my God, this is so wonderful!" Chloe practically beamed with joy through the phone, "So how was it? The sex I mean."

"There was no sex Chloe, we worked all day," Beca replied dryly.

"Aww," she said sounding disappointed, "too soon I guess. Well how did he look?"

"Amazing."

"Amazing? He looked Amazing? A sober Beca Mitchell does not talk like that, have you been drinking?" Chloe asked.

"Only a couple bottles of wine," replied Beca.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"With dinner, Jesse and I shared a couple bottles of wine."

"And you didn't call me to give you a ride? Beca, how did you get home?" demanded Chloe sounding angry and very concerned.

"Oh my gosh, look mom, we shared a cab. It dropped me off at my place and then took him on home. And tomorrow we are going to do the same thing to pick up the cars. Is that ok with you?"

"Alright, as long as you were safe. You know drunk driving is very serious Beca." Chloe could practically see Beca rolling her eyes, it made her smirk. "So you guys had dinner? Was it good? What did you talk about?"

Beca leaned back on her bed and smiled to herself, "Yeah it was nice. He told me all about London and his promotions over the years. His sister Julie just had a baby and his brother just graduated from college." It had been nice talking about their families and work like they always had. "Then we joked about Barden and…" She hesitated.

"And?" Chloe asked.

"And then he sang. But he had really had too much to drink."

Chloe had been looking at a magazine as she listened to Beca talk, with the mention of singing she jumped up, dropping the magazine on the ground and squealed, "He sang to you?!"

"No," Beca began, "we were talking about finals our senior year and how much fun we had and he started singing his solo."

"Aw," Chloe said sounding disappointed, "well at least he drank too much, that is something. Do you think he was nervous?

"Or the wine was free," laughed Beca.

"Whatever," replied Chloe.

Beca sounded happy and that made Chloe smile. Despite everything Beca said Chloe knew her friend hadn't taken the break up as well as she claimed. She had dated lots of guys over the years and had convinced the rest of their friends that she was truly over Jesse and had been for years, but Chloe knew better. It was in the way she pleasantly smiled when people brought him up in conversation, that smile was totally fake. Or the way she always managed to change the subject when he was mentioned or when anything remotely close in association with him came up. I mean you can't pretend that England doesn't exist for six years straight and not attract attention to yourself. If Jesse was back then maybe they could work through whatever issues broke them apart and they could get back together.

"So you guys talked about everything?" Chloe asked. "I'm surprised he told you about the girlfriend." The second the silence hit Chloe's ears she knew she had made a major mistake.

Beca froze, and then spoke into her phone, "what girlfriend?"

"Oh," said Chloe, "he didn't say anything? Well he probably didn't have one," Chloe answered quickly.

"No, what are you talking about," Beca demanded, "Do you know something that I don't about Jesse?"

"What? No, I was just assuming. You know, you dated every guy in LA the last few years, I assumed he had dated someone too, but I am probably just wrong." Chloe finished and then was silent, she knew she didn't sound convincing, she hoped Beca's buzz would prevent her from noticing when her best friend was lying.

"You're lying." Apparently not.

"Nooo," Chloe said lamely.

Beca was getting upset, "Did Jesse tell you he had a girlfriend? Have you guys been talking? I thought I was the friend you chose after the breakup?"

Chloe sighed; she knew this wasn't going to go well. "Beca you are my best friend, you know I would have chosen you if it had been that kind of break up, but it wasn't, remember? You guys ended on good terms. Anyways, no, I haven't talked to Jesse in years. So he didn't tell me anything."

Beca was still upset, "But someone told you something," she demanded.

Chloe was silent for a second, "you know I have to work tomorrow, I should really go to bed…"

"Chloe!" Beca yelled into the phone.

"Fine. Aubrey told me."

"Aubrey?" asked Beca , "Aubrey and Jesse aren't even friends, how would she know anything."

"They aren't _good_ friends but, we are _all_ friends Beca. We have been in and out of each other's lives for over ten years now. Anyways, remember when Aubrey and Carl went to Europe a few years ago?" Chloe waited for a response, when she didn't get one she went on, "I guess somehow she met up with Jesse. They had dinner with his girlfriend, the girlfriend that he lived with."

Beca was silent. She felt blindsided. She knew that Chloe hadn't kept this a secret from her to be mean, she was probably trying to protect her. Or maybe she assumed that she didn't care since she said as much every time Jesses name had come up in the past. "So it was serious," Beca asked into the phone.

Chloe's heart was breaking for her friend, "I don't know, they lived together so I would assume so. I am so sorry Beca, I figured you didn't need to know."

Beca couldn't be mad at her friend, "It's alright Chloe. I totally understand. I am just glad that I know now. Now I know what to expect, we can have a totally professional relationship and…"

"What!" interrupted Chloe, "Beca he _had_ a girlfriend, emphasis on the _had._ He is here in LA, clearly whatever they had going on is over."

"You don't know that," said Beca defensively, "maybe she just hasn't gotten here yet, maybe they are doing the long distance thing."

"Beca you are being an idiot!" Chloe said clearly exasperated, "he spent all day with you and then all night getting drunk with you, I don't know if any girlfriend would be cool with that. He clearly doesn't have a girlfriend anymore." Silence met Chloe's ear, "Beca? Beca?"

"I think I am going to go to bed Chloe. Thanks for talking to me tonight; I'm sorry it's so late. Give kisses to Ella, and tell Tom I owe him some beer for waking him up, okay?"

Chloe knew her friend enough to know there was no point in continuing the argument. When Beca Mitchell decided something, even something as silly and deluded as this was, her mind was set. "Okay Bec, go to sleep, I will call you after work tomorrow. Love you. Night."

Beca hung up the phone and walked into the bathroom. She turned the faucet on so that hot water poured out covering the mirror with steam. "Whatever, it doesn't even matter," she said to herself. She brushed her hand across the steamy mirror revealing her reflection. "It doesn't even matter," she said to herself as she watched the tears roll down her face.

She was up early, showered and dressed in jeans and a plat button up. Sometimes having a casual dress code was awesome, like when you were hung over and felt like shit. She had dreamt all night of Jesse and now she was annoyed with herself. She looked at her reflection in her mirror as she finished pulling her hair up, she exhaled in frustration with herself. It wasn't that she was hurt he had had a girlfriend. She had dated a couple of guys over the years too, or as Chloe so eloquently put it every man in LA. No, dating was expected. She guessed him getting serious was expected too. The problem was that she hadn't. She hadn't liked any of them enough to get serious with them and if she was really honest with herself she hadn't liked them because they weren't Jesse. In truth, her feelings were hurt and she was a little embarrassed. All these years she had been harboring secret feelings for him and he had moved on. And now he was on his way over to her house. "Life is just great," Beca thought to herself.

Jesse had never been this happy about being hung over before. Last night after all these years apart he had gotten drunk with Beca, his Beca. Well she wasn't exactly his Beca yet but he was going to make sure that she soon would be. He nodded along to the song the cab driver played and smiled to himself. He didn't care how long it took or what he had to do he was going to win her back. He was feeling pretty confident; last night had seemed to go well. Now, he would admit that he had gotten pretty drunk, so his memories of the night may not have been as accurate as he thought, but they had shared a cab home and she had asked him to get one to pick her up today. If he had fucked things up she wouldn't have let him know where she lives right? And if he was remembering correctly, which he thought he was, she had touched him last night. It may have just been his hand, but the two locked eyes and there had been a moment.

They were onto bottle number two of their wine and the two of them were telling stories of their Barden days. Beca was laughing about the first year both teams had participated in the College A Cappella show at Tufts University. The show had been right before Christmas and they had all gotten snowed into the dorms and never made it to their curtain calls. Instead everyone got drunk and danced around the college's empty dorms; they were lucky to be invited back the next two years.

Beca was demonstrating how Benji had flailed his arms trying to shield his face from snowballs when Jesse remembered that that had been the night they first told each other they loved one another. "That was a great night," Jesse said. They both smiled at each other as they both remembered.

There was snow everywhere. The Trebles were doing their hardest to soak the Bellas through and Jesse had found an empty room to pull his girlfriend into to save her from the fight. They were both laughing as he pulled them into the room where he wrapped his arms around her and then leaned her back against the door. "Hey there weirdo," she said looking up at him. "Hey," he huskily replied while brushing bits of snow out of her hair. They could hear their friends screaming and laughing right outside the room but the atmosphere on their side was suddenly serious. The air in their room was suddenly thick, they could feel the importance of the moment within them, as they looked into each other's eyes, their chests became heavy. Jesse touched Beca's face with his fingers, tracing her nose then lips. Beca's hands rested on Jesses hips; whatever she was feeling this second was new to her. She knew she like Jesse, really liked him, but in those seconds she realized it was more than that. Time seemed to stand still and Jesse tipped Beca's chin up, "I love you," he said almost as a whisper." Beca felt her heart squeeze and she knew she loved him too, "I love you," she whispered back. They both stared at each other for a second, then Jesse lowered his lips to hers and he kissed her. Gently at first and then deeper. Beca's hands slipped up and under Jesse's shirt caressing his back and pulling him closer to her. Jesse had a hand twined in Beca's snow covered hair; his other cupped her backside pulling her up and into him, his whole body solidly against her. Suddenly the door moved and the two lost their balance and crashed to the floor.

"You trying to treble-bone her right there on the floor?" Laughed Fat Amy. Before they could answer (or even realize what was going on) they were pelted with snowballs by the rest of their friends.

Beca and Jesse looked at each other across the restaurant table, "It _was_ a good night," Beca said with a smile. In a moment of bravery (and due to the excess of wine) Beca slipped her hand across the table and laid it atop Jesses. His thumb brushed the back of her hand and the two smiled. The moment lasted only a second as the waitress came by to ask it they were ok and the two drew their hands back under the table. But the moment had happened.

Jesse smiled to himself. Yes it had happened and he knew he was going to get her back.


	4. Chapter 4

Jesse looked at Beca and then down at himself. Her shoulders were squared, arms crossed defiantly across her chest and her face held a look of scorn. He didn't look much better with his hands balled into fists by his sides. He noticed movement to his right, Beca's assistant was trying to sneak out of the office, when she noticed him notice her, a look of panic shot across her face and she snuck back into the office. He exhaled and shook his head; this was definitely not the place to be having a fight. "I'm done with this Beca." Jesse shook his head and turned away from Beca walking towards his car. This is definitely not how he thought this day was going to go.

He had had a plan, he arranged for a taxi cab to pick him up, drive him to the coffee shop and then be at Beca's with plenty of time for the unpredictable LA traffic. He text her when he saw her building, then jumped out of the car telling the driver to wait.

Beca came to the door looking as beautiful as ever. "Hey," she said with a sad smile. Jesse knew how to perk her up, he pulled the coffee and bag of bagels out from behind his back.

"Ridiculously strong coffee and jalapeño bagels," Jesse said while shaking the two items in front of Beca's face, "with extra cream cheese, just how you like them. Well how you used to like them, I decided to take the gamble that you still like this nasty stuff."

Despite her mood Beca couldn't help smile. She grabbed both items, "they are not nasty, you just have no taste." She turned and locked the door and they both made their way to the cab.

Forty minutes later they both pulled into the studio parking lot in their own cars. The entire drive Jesse brainstormed his plans for the day. They would take a lunch break and go grab sandwiches. He had spied a Beach Hut Deli a block away; they had loved Beach Hut while at Barden. An hour or so before their day was done he would ask her what her plans were for the evening, he was banking on her having none. "It would certainly put a damper on things if she said she had a hot date," he though while chuckling to himself. He would suggest some moviecation. He had copies of a few films he had worked on that hadn't been released yet. He technically wasn't supposed to show them to anyone but he could break the rules for Beca.

He knew he should be planning his day around editing not sandwich shops but he was just so overwhelmed with the desire to get Beca back. He grabbed his belongings from the passenger seat and made his way into the studio. Beca was talking to her assistant, from the sound of it a couple of the artist had already gotten back to them about being in the film.

"Good news I hope," Jesse said to the two women talking in the hallway.

Beca's assistant Angela smiled at Jesse, "Good and bad, two of the artists are definitely interested. They are both relatively new and the exposure will be awesome for them. Our third guy declined, something about not wanting to sell out," she leaned forward and whispered, "personally I think he is kind of an asshole, you guys are better off without him." She winked, smiled, and then turned off towards her desk.

Jesse smiled after her, he kind of like the girl. Turning to Beca he said, "Well this is great news, these two plus the instrumental you had already made leaves us looking for just three songs."

Beca stared back and smiled that sad smile again. "Yeah we can get those three mixed in no time and then you can get out of here."

"Already trying to get rid of me are you," Jesse asked with a chuckle.

"Well on to bigger and better projects right," Beca replied, then turned and walked down the hallway to her office.

Jesse stood in the hall looking after her; he had the unpleasant feeling that her comments weren't meant as playful banter.

Things didn't get much better from there. Beca was all business today. She wanted to know his plan for the day; he didn't have an appropriate response. Beca looked at him annoyed, "Okay, well why don't you do your thing with the three tracks that we already have. I am going to make a call to a contact at SoundBox, I emailed him about the film yesterday and he thought he had something that might work."

"Okay. I will just set up my equipment and get started," Jesse replied.

"You know you could probably work from your office, I could just send you the tracks that I find," Beca said the words so casually, not even looking up to see the hurt look on Jesses face. She had to be joking right? Jesse did a mental rundown of the situation, last night had gone great, he wasn't cramping her style, her boss had assured him that she didn't have any more pressing projects, so she had to be fucking with him, right?

"That's ok, this stuff is portable. And you guys are a recording studio right, there isn't anything that I have at my office that you guys don't already have here. Everything I need is right here, especially you." He knew he had poured it on thick but he didn't care. He also didn't care to hear her response so he quickly pulled on his headphones, looked up to give Beca a smile and then got down to business on his laptop.

Beca just stood there a little frazzled. She was trying her damndest and every time she thought she had put him in his place he would say something so sweet, or he would flash her that smile that she loved so much. This just wasn't working. Maybe Chloe had been right, maybe the girlfriend had been in the past and he was here with her now, and they could be something again.

She liked him; no she loved him, always had and always would. And he loved her, well he used to, and then he loved someone else. But maybe he didn't love that someone else anymore, maybe he could love her again. "Or maybe he just still loves her," Beca muttered to herself. Beca couldn't be around Jesse any more; he was confusing and frustrating her, two things she hated to be especially at work. She turned to walk out the door; Jesse pulled his headphones off and asked what was up.

"I am just going to head out to SoundBox, I will be back." Beca was out the door before Jesse could say anything.

That is how Jesse's lunch plans were spoiled. Beca didn't return until close to four. In reality the lack of Beca helped Jesse get some work done. It wasn't too difficult to sync a prerecorded song with a film. He input the video and track into his sequencer and started marking up the timeline where he wanted the music to hit a certain event in the scene.

Beca's piece was perfect for this scene. The film was full of loud tracks, each specifically chosen to catch the audience's attention; this was a hip hop film after all. But Beca's track was different, it was moving, it's what they called in his field non-diegetic. It wasn't chosen to be a focal point but to be used as underscore. The couple on screen was finally kissing, the audience could plainly see that, but you add Beca's track and now the audience could feel it. Her track gave the scene emotion and power. For the most part the audience wouldn't even notice the song, at least not until they heard it on the soundtrack, but without it the scene would be nothing. That is what Jesse loved about scoring films. The music and sound is truly what makes the movie. He smiled as he put his last touch on the scene and looked up, Beca was watching him.

"When did you get back?" Jesse asked, slightly embarrassed that she had been watching him.

Beca turned from him and walked to her desk setting her bag down, she reached in and pulled out the tracks she had picked up from SoundBox, and then handed them to Jesse. "Just a few minutes ago, here, I think these might work. The last one might need a little intro added to it but one of us can do that if you think they are okay."

"Thanks," Jesse said as he took the tracks out of Beca's hand, "You were gone all day, it was quiet without you."

Beca took a long look at Jesse. She had spent the day sorting through tracks and thinking about him. She had decided she was mad at him and as stupid and juvenile as it was she was going to go with it. But she got back here and he was working. That line between his eyebrows had appeared just like it used to when he was concentrating hard, and she just melted. "I think I am going to head out. If those tracks work for you then we can be done by the end of the week. I'm… I'm just tired so I think I should call it quits." Beca pulled her bag over her shoulder and headed out of her office.

Jesse stumbled out of his chair, a cord from something had managed to twine itself around his leg, forcing his attention and preventing him from running right after Beca. When he finally reached the parking lot she was halfway to her car. "Beca, do you want a moviecation?" he shouted out to her. He grimace at his choice of words, he had planned on wooing her with the prospect of viewing unreleased movies, he had spent the afternoon choosing the exact words but they all failed him as he desperately tried to stop her from getting into her car.

"I'm cool Jesse, I'm going to head home, thanks though," Beca said over her shoulder.

He knew he should just let her go, she had been short with him today, but he didn't want to give up, "I could come with you; we could just watch one of our favorites of something."

For some reason that annoyed Beca. "One of their favorites?" She thought, "I wonder if they are the same as his girlfriend's favorites?" Before she could stop herself she blurted out, "maybe you should just go watch them with your girlfriend."

Jesse was confused, "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah girlfriend," Beca said as she turned around, "the one you lived with in London."

Jesse stopped walking towards Beca, "Lived with? Do you mean Liz? Beca, she was nobody, we have been over for years."

Part of Beca was relieved, he didn't have a girlfriend, and he thought she was nobody. But some old obnoxious, juvenile part of Beca that liked to fight for fighting's sake forced words out of her mouth like vomit, "she was nobody? So are all the girls you live with nobody?"

Jesse exhaled, "Come on Beca, seriously this is stupid. The only other person I have lived with was you, and I obviously don't think you are nobody."

The word vomit kept coming, "Obviously, that is how you were able to just shack up with someone else."

He was trying not to get mad but she was starting to piss him off, "Beca we were broken up for six years, did you really expect me to sit around and do nothing? I tried to talk to you, I tried to reach out. After Donald's wedding you were all I could think about, but did you return my calls? My emails? No, there was nothing from you. You made it clear that you weren't interested. So I moved on."

His last words stung, they were exactly what she was waiting to hear, what she didn't want to hear, but what she knew was true. "Well good Jesse I moved on too."

It was then that he saw Beca's assistant, and Jesse decided that he was over this. "I'm done with this Beca."

This day had certainly not gone as planned.


	5. Chapter 5

"And then I said, 'I'm over this Beca and I got into my car." Jesse was sitting in front of his computer Skyping with his best friend Benji.

Benji made a grimace. Jessie moaned and put his face in his hands.

"Women," Benji said trying to comfort his friend.

"Hey," Jesse heard over Benji's shoulder, "what's wrong with women?" Benji's girlfriend Irene popped into view. The two had met a few years back at a magic convention, Benji said no one got him like Irene did and Jesse believed it. Irene was sweet and smart, she taught math at their local community college and did magic on the side. The two of them were perfect for each other.

"I take it from the look on your face that the big plan to win Beca back didn't quite work," Irene said into the camera with a frown.

"I take it from your knowledge of my big plan that someone couldn't keep his mouth shut," Jesse said into the computer.

Benji put his hands up in surrender, "Sorry man, she wanted to know when we were coming to visit you and when I said you had to work on your plan first, well she wanted to know what the plan was." Irene stood behind Benji and wrap her arms around his shoulders, "what happened?" she asked.

"I don't know, I thought things were going well, and then today she starts yelling at me about some stupid ex that I lived with," Jesse says shaking his head.

"Well she is clearly jealous," said Irene, "maybe she thought you guys were still together, or that you really loved this girl."

"That is so ridiculous," Jesse said, "Liz and I were together for three months! Three long, miserable, months, and the only reason we lived together was because my lease was up and she offered up a place for me to stay," Jesse was sounding exasperated.

"Well," Irene said as gently as possible, "how did she find out about this girl? Maybe whoever told her made it sound like some epic love affair."

"Yeah," quipped up Benji, "how did she find out about this Liz girl, I don't think you even told me about her."

"Aubrey." Jesse said, and it all made sense.

"Which one is Aubrey?" Irene asked Benji. Jesse listened to Benji explain that Aubrey was one of the original Bellas, and Chloe's other best friend.

"And Chloe is Beca's best friend right?" Irene asked. Jesse couldn't help but smile that Benji had attempted to educate his girlfriend about their crazy group of college friends.

"How would Aubrey know about her?" asked Benji.

Jesse sighed, "She was in London, I saw her post it on Facebook or something, and to be polite I said something about meeting up with her. And the next night she and her husband were making plans with me for dinner. I was living with Liz so she came along. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't exactly tell Aubrey that Liz was just some girl that didn't mean anything."

Both Benji and Irene looked at Jesse with empathetic smiles.

"I am pretty sure that Aubrey is the bane of my existence. First her no treble boning rule and now this."

Benji laughed and Irene looked really confused.

"Call her man, or better yet drive to her house and explain," Benji said.

"No, channel John Cusack," Irene blurted out, then looked really embarrassed for speaking her thought out loud, "never mind, I just always thought that scene in Say Anything was so romantic, it was a silly idea."

Jesse beamed at Irene through the computer, "You are a genius!"


	6. Chapter 6

Beca finished reading Ella Good Night Moon and gave her a kiss. She walked over to the Dora CD player she had gotten her Goddaughter for her second birthday and hit play. A soft melody hit her ears and she smiled. Ella was listening to one of the cd she had made her. Beca had made tracks for artist like Pharelle, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce, she had even gotten to do some work for her favorite producer David Guetta, and she loved it. But her favorite person to make music for was her niece. She looked over at Ella and she could see the toddler move her little head back and forth across the pillow to the soft beat, she sure did love that girl.

Beca shut the door silently and walked into Chloe's living room.

"Finally!" Chloe said, "She had you read it six times didn't she?" Chloe smile at her best friend. She had been the first of the Bellas to have a baby, at first she had feared that it would create a distance between her and her friends. She had seen it happen to coworkers, one day they have tons of friends the next they have a baby and no one returns their calls. But it hadn't been like that for Chloe. The girls had been there every step of the way. They had thrown her a 'No more Jiggle Juice Party' to celebrate when they found out she was pregnant, a Bella Shower, and then they had all flown in to wait in the hospital for baby Ella to arrive.

Beca was the best though. Chloe knew that part of it was because she was the only other Bella living in California but the other part was because Beca was just a great person. That is why it was killing her to see her friend so close to happiness but screwing it up royally. Chloe had to secretly admit that this was kind of Beca's way. I mean hadn't she done this before? First when Jesse was first pursuing her, and then later after they had been together for years, when she broke up with him and sent him off to London alone. It's like she had something against being happy!

"I love that kid but she is a mini dictator 'read it again read it again' you would think she was Aubrey's kid not yours Chloe." Beca smiled at her friend and sat down on her couch. "I am only going to sit for a second; I want to get out of here before Tom gets back and reads me the riot act for waking him up the other night."

Chloe glared at her best friend, "I don't think so. Its poker night and Tom won't get back until later; you aren't going anywhere until we discuss what you are going to do about Jesse."

Beca lay back on the couch as if she was in a therapist office and sighed loudly. They had already been over this once on the drive over here from work, then during dinner, and again during Ella's bath. "What more is there to say Chloe, the guy was back in my life two days and I have already driven him to hate me. I acted like a crazy jealous girl instead of an adult and all for no reason."

Chloe looked at Beca, "Well I am not going to say that all of that isn't true, except for the part where Jesse hates you. I don't think Jesse could ever hate you. As crazy as your behavior was it isn't like a million other girls haven't done the same thing."

Beca looked at her friend and made a face, she hated being like other girls.

Chloe made a face right back at her, "I know you pride yourself on being big badass Beca but in the end you are just human. You had this great love and you guys ended it. While that was a completely boneheaded move, you guys thought you were doing right by each other."

Chloe takes a sip of her Diet Coke and then continues, "and then he shows up here out of the blue all these years later and you realize that those feelings you have been trying to keep secret about him," Beca frowns at Chloe, "Yes, those feelings that you have _always _felt, that your best friend could see the whole time," she smiles at Beca, "well maybe you don't have to keep them a secret anymore. And maybe he has felt the same way."

Beca sits up and reaches for her drink, "It doesn't matter what feelings I have had for him," at that comment Chloe beams a look of triumph at her friend, "anyways, it doesn't matter because I went totally ape shit on him in a parking lot."

"Beca that doesn't matter. If I recall Jesse has forgiven you before. Look, I think it is clear that he has feelings for you or he wouldn't have sought you out. LA is huge. He could have lived here for years before you ever realized he was back, but he not only found you, he managed to arrange for you two to work together. Then he asked your sorry ass out to dinner, and brought you your disgusting bagels."

"Seriously?" Beca quipped, "they are delicious!"

"And then," Chloe continued, "after you were rude to him and abandoned him in your office all day he still asked you out on one of your dorky movie dates. And if I'm not mistaken those used to be code word for 'let's strip naked and do it all night."

Beca pursed her lips and looked at her friend, "what would I say to him."

Chloe rolled her eyes, "I don't know maybe 'I'm sorry' then you could add a little bit of the truth and then it's a done deal."

"The truth?" Beca asked.

"Yeah, the truth!" Chloe said, "Like how you didn't want to stand in the way of his success so you let him go, but it was the biggest mistake of your life. Like how you have been pining away for him for years. How you have dated every man in southern California but none of them were him, so there was no way the relationships could work. Like how you heard he was living with some girl and it broke your heart because you thought he had moved on. I don't know, pick one of those and go with it. Maybe don't mention how you have dated every guy in LA though, that might not go over so well." Chloe smiled at her best friend. "And hurry up and do it, you are starting to put a cramp in my lady time, if you know what I mean."

"Gross," Beca muttered, then laughed at her friend.


	7. Chapter 7

Phil had opened the studio twenty years ago. At the time it was a one room recording studio in the valley; open 24 hours a day to anyone willing pay the $50 session fee. It now had fifteen recording studios two large enough to house full orchestras. It employed just over fifty people, any of whom could be found working in private studios or artist's homes across the globe. The fifty or so employees specialized in everything from sound mixing, to vocal arrangement, sound composition, to music video production. Phil had created an atmosphere that attracted the best in the music field. The studio had countless Grammys under its belt, hundreds of platinum and gold records and artists traveled from all over the world to work with them. Yet they were still open to the general public. For fifty dollars anyone could use one of the smaller studios for six hours and if they were lucky and one of the numerous producers was around they could get help and advice for free.  
That is why Beca took the job there. To her everyone should be able to make music. She hated the idea that you could only get your music out there if you were rich and famous. She loved that the studio was out there for anyone. And unlike SoundBox, the production company that gave her her first big break, the studio wasn't about the money or building a list of famous cliental. It was all about making the best music however you wanted to. And she loved that she had the freedom to take on any project, run it her way without rules or dictation from her bosses.

Wednesday mornings they had a 'powwow' with all of the employees. These meetings were really to keep track of everyone. If you weren't in LA you had to call in, give a mini progress report, where you were at and how much longer you would be working on your project.  
Today the powwow room wasn't crowded with employees; maybe only half the staff was there. Beca looked around the table for Jesse. She knew he wasn't an employee but she figured he would be there; she _wanted_ him to be there. But as the meeting started he was nowhere in sight.  
Beca's assistant Angela elbowed her and then whispered in her ear, "He isn't here. Didn't you check your email last night?"  
Beca shot her assistant a panicked look, what email? What could it have said? She mentally asked herself. She looked in front of her on the table for her iphone, "damn it," she thought to herself, she had left her phone on her desk.  
Angela saw her bosses panicked expression, "some client called and he had to have an emergency meeting with them today. He said that the tracks you got him yesterday were perfect, he just needs you to make one last one, and then you guys will be done." She looked at her boss and gave her a half smile.  
Beca sat back. What did this mean? Obviously it could mean that he was at a meeting with a client and he _couldn't_ be here. Or, he hated her and had come up with this story to do just what she had suggested yesterday, work in his own studio, away from her. Beca didn't know what to think, a feeling of dread and panic started to form in her chest.

Angela elbowed her again. "Ouch," Beca hissed.

"Beca? Earth to Beca," Beca looked up, the entire staff was staring at her and Phil was laughing. "Hello? Do you have an update for us on your project?"

Beca stared at Phil open mouthed, the staff laughed, it wasn't every day that they saw Beca behave this way and they were all clearly enjoying it.

"She has lost her mind," one of her coworkers shouted from across the room, "it fell out of the gaping hole in her head she made with those obnoxious ear spikes she wears." Everyone laughed.

"No way man she is sex deprived," a fellow producer named Marcus joked, "she always gets this way when I have been away working on a project," he blew her a kiss and everyone in the room laughed.

"I don't know Marcus, you weren't here earlier this week, Beca has herself some man candy helping her on her project. You should see him, he is hot," the women in the room whooped and whistled, the men laughed. Someone punched Marcus in the shoulder and said, "Sorry man looks like you have been replaced."

Beca was crimson. Her blushing just made everyone laugh more. Finally, after the laughter died down she regained her composure and addressed Phil, "I'm almost done. We needed six tracks to finish the score, we used an instrumental I made last year, two tracks with vocals that I recorded a month or two ago and then I found two from a contact at SoundBox. If we use those as is we will need to give them soul credit but I think we might tweak them a bit to make them fit the movie, we will call it a collaboration on the by line in the credits if we do that. Jesse says he just needs one more song, I think it is for makeup scene, they wanted an underscore piece but something with a beat. It shouldn't be too hard. I'm not sure if Jesse will be back in but I should have the track done soon and ship it over to him. We should be wrapped up by the end of the week. "

The meeting continued. People updated their progress on albums, and tracks, work they were doing for big stars, and projects of their own. Beca barley listened. When the meeting finally ended she made her way to her office and pulled up her email on her computer. There it was. Sandwiched between the daily joke email from Fat Amy and some spam from Southwest Airlines was an email from Jesse. Beca opened it and scanned its contents.

There was nothing special; it was pretty much exactly what Angela had told her. She closed the window on her computer and leaned back into her seat. What to do. She could sit here and freak out, or try and compose an apology letter to Jesse. Or she could get to work on the track. She turned back to her MacBook and searched for the film clip that needed its song.

It was dark and the couple approached each other from the opposite sides of the screen, they exchanged a few words and both laughed, then he pulled her to him and kissed. The camera pulled back and the scene eventually changed into blackness. "Alright," Beca said, "a makeup scene, what are they feeling?" Beca looked to the actors faces to get a sense of their emotions; they seemed pretty damn content as they sucked on each other's faces. The major make out session didn't leave a lot of expression on the actor's faces (at least not one she could see) so Beca leaned back into her chair again and closed her eyes.

Making up, what would it feel like to make up with Jesse? "Magical," she thought. What would it feel like to know that he had forgiven her craziness and they could finally be together after all these years? "Perfect, joyous, miraculous," she thought again. To feel him wrap his arms around her and then touch his lips to hers. To taste his taste again. Beca felt herself get warm and tingly all over, "yup, there is that magical feeling, how do you make that into a sound," she thought. She could feel her heart pound in her chest, she concentrated on it for a second, there it was, the beat that she needed. Beca opened her eyes and started making the song.

It was late. Beca had been working on the track all day, tweaking things here and there and making sure it fit perfectly with the scene. When it was finished she showed her assistant Angela, who promptly typed in an interoffice memo to Phil: "_Beca's done with the track…it's amazing!"_

Within five minutes Phil, Angela, Beca and a few other coworkers were standing around Beca's desk watching the film clip with the track playing together.

"It's beautiful," Angela said.

"Totally magical, it makes the scene so powerful," another added.

"And yet it has a sick beat, it's totally hip hop," said Marcus with an approving nod.

Beca looked up and over to Phil, he was still staring at the computer screen with his arms folded across his chest. He looked over to Beca and nodded, "Its perfect Beca. Jesses a lucky man."

Beca was floored; she didn't know what to say to that.

"Wait! What?! She made that for some dude?" Marcus barked, "That's some sappy shit Beca, you have totally lost your street cred." Beca laughed and shook her head, Phil exhaled and shook his too, wrapping his arm around Marcus' shoulder, "and you wonder why she won't ever date you."

Marcus stared up at his boss, "wait wait wait, she totally wants me, she's just scared to get with this hotness," he said and winked at Beca. The remaining colleagues rolled their eyes and laughed. Marcus' pig headed attempts to hit on Beca were not new, neither was her blatant refusal to date him. Everyone moved to go home wishing each other a good night and reiterating their approval and congratulations to Beca.

"Do you want me to walk out with you?" Angela asked Beca.

"Sure, just give me a sec, I need to email this track to Jesse." With that she attached the file and typed a quick message: "_It's done, I hope it inspires you to want to make up. Love Beca"_ With that she hit send and left her office.


	8. Chapter 8

Jesse had finally gotten to bed after talking to Benji and searching for a boombox, the iconic prop was proving to be difficult to find, unless he wanted one that was hot pink with Hello Kitty on it. He crawled into bed and had just closed his eyes when the phone rang.

He looked at the number and recognized it instantly, it was Cutting Edge. It was one am here but already nine am at his old office; Jesse went to answer his phone figuring it was one of his buddies. When he said hello he was shocked to find that the person on the other line was the studio head Reuben. There was a problem.

"Of course," Jesse thought. A movie he had worked on a few months back had just refilmed some scenes; they ended up adding another four minutes and needed some sound added to it. "Ok," Jesse said, not understanding why Reuben was calling him at this hour, "everything should be there in the archives, I always have some extra score that doesn't make it into the final cut, you should be able to use that."

"I know," said Reuben, "that is what we had planned on doing but the producers are demanding that you do the work. They said that the continuity is extremely important to them. We tried to explain that you left the company and had moved back to the US, but they didn't care. They want us to hire you on as a consultant to do the work," Reuben sighed, "It seemed easier than pissing off one of the major production companies here."

Jesse rubbed his face, "yeah that is fine. I am working on something that should be done by Friday. I can start work on it on Monday, Saturday even if you need it faster."

"No you don't understand," spoke Reuben, "part of the problem is they need it ASAP. I have already shipped the master to our LA office; someone can bring it to you tomorrow. I need you to score it tomorrow and then get it shipped back to me by tomorrow night."

Jesse was shocked, this was an insane thing to ask, "I don't know Reuben, I am already working on a problematic project with a tight deadline, you are asking me to lose a whole days work on that project."

"Look," said Reuben, his desperation coming through the phone line, "I will pay you triple the consult fee, and I will pay you for a week's worth of work."

Jesse started to interrupt but Reuben continued, "I know it isn't about the money for you, look you would be doing me a major favor, and I would be in your debt. You have a new company and you never know when you are going to need a little help."

He couldn't believe that he was adding to the already heaping pile of crap that he had on his plate, but in the end Jesse had said yes. He sent Phil and Beca an email telling them he wouldn't be in tomorrow and asked Beca to work on the last track that they would need. He knew that Phil wouldn't care but Beca would take it personally, just one more thing to work against him. He wearily fell back onto his pillow and fell asleep.

Someone met him at his office at 8am with the master and his files and he got straight to work. What they were asking would usually be impossible; a full film usually takes twelve weeks for him to score and a full film is just two and a half hours, so even five measly minutes of work should take him days to do. But he had already done the work; it was just a matter of using the unused scoring he had already made and fitting it into this new scene.

Jesse lived for stuff like this. In London he was known for spending hours locked in the studio after everyone else had gone home. There were even times his friends would show up the next morning and find Jesse still working. It wasn't a big secret around the office that he didn't have much of a social life.

That was part of his reasoning for coming back. He wanted his own company with total control over his projects without the bureaucracy, but more importantly he wanted to have a life again. He wanted someone to share all of his success with. He wanted to want to come home. And he wanted what he had had before he went to London, days working on his passions and nights with the person he loved.

Jesses dropped off his finished work with a rep from Cutting Edge around six and hopped onto the 101 making his way home. It had been a long day and he just wanted to veg out in front of the tv with a cold beer and a good movie. As he pulled into his driveway his phone vibrated letting him know he had a new email. He didn't know if he could handle any more excitement before he downed a beer so he ignored it and pulled his car into the garage.

It had been his mom's idea to buy a house instead of rent an apartment. She was convinced that with the current state of the market he could make a killing. She kept sending him adds for houses back home, it took him a few weeks to convince her that if he was going to buy a house he would need to do it close to his work. When she had finally accepted that he was going to buy a house in LA instead of down the street from his childhood home she had a field day searching. It took her a month to find the perfect house for him. She sent him the real estate listing and then called him a few minutes later.

"Did you see the house?" his mom demanded.

"Yes Mom I saw it," Jesse said into the phone.

"It's perfect! First it is a total steal; you are paying two hundred thousand below its original asking price. It has four bedrooms and…"

"Mom," Jesse interrupted, "What am I going to do with a four bedroom house, I have been living in a one bedroom flat for the last four years, I really don't need more space than that."

"Sweetheart you have no idea what you need." Jesse smiled and shook his head, of course she would say that and he was sure she was going to tell him exactly what _she_ thought he needed. "Jesse you can use one of the spare rooms for your studio, you already told me that you wanted that. Then you have a guest room. Your last room could be anything. Your Dad and I turned your old room into a gym, you could do that or you could make it into an office. Or," she started very excitedly, "maybe you could find yourself someone nice to settle down with. I don't know if you remember but that sweet girl you used to date lives there in LA. Maybe you could look her up and then the two of you could get married and have a kid and then you will be thanking me for having you buy a four bedroom house."

"Wow," he had said, "you have this all planned out don't you?" Jesse had laughed at his mom and even acted annoyed but in the end he bought the house. He told his family he was going to build a studio and workout room and make the third room a place for guests to stay, but secretly, and he would never, ever admit this to his mother, he had really liked her plan.

Jesse made himself leftovers and sat down on his couch to watch Rocky. He had just taken a sip of his Timothy Taylor, a British ale he had learned to love while living in London, when his phone vibrated again.

He had totally forgotten about the first email, he typed in his password and checked to see who emailed him. There were two messages, one was from Reuben, with a subject of _'thanks,' _the second was from Beca and the subject line was left blank. "Just like Beca," he thought, leave him wondering. He skipped Reuben's email and opened Beca's. She had written him just one line but it spoke volumes.

He dropped his phone on the couch and ran upstairs to his studio. He wanted to hear Becas song, and he wanted to hear it on his surround sound. It took a few minutes for his computer to start and for him to open his email and download her attachment. He played it and smiled.

If you weren't obsessed with music you would have heard the track and thought it was a great little tune with a nice beat. But Jesse had spent his life studying music. He knew how a sound or a set of notes could be interpreted as a feeling and there were a lot of feelings in this three minute track.

It started off with longing, and anticipation, followed by hope. And then there was the hesitation, the music slowed and he knew that this was the point in the film right before the boy reached for the girl. He knew with absolute certainty that she had made this song about them, and this moment, this hesitation in the song, represented where he and Beca were right now in their relationship.

And then the music changed, the song picked up, the boy got the girl. You could feel their joy, their happiness, the passion and excitement. This track was awesome.

He had to see Beca. He had been devising a plan, he wanted to stand outside her window with a giant boombox and declare his love, but it looked like she had beat him to it. She had devised another epic declaration of love, but this time the witnesses wouldn't be a theater of a cappella fans, it would be thousands of people in the movie theater, and hundreds more watching this film from the comfort of their homes.

"Damn," he thought, "I really love this woman."

Beca wrapped herself in a blanket and sat back to watch her tv. She didn't use it much, her free time was usually spent mixing music or hanging with her best friends, but it came in handy when she was too drained to do anything but zone out.

She had grabbed Chinese food on her way home and talked to both Chloe and Fat Amy. Chloe wanted an update on the current Jesse situation. Beca told her she had been busy working on a track all day, one that she thought Jesse might like and promised to update her later. Fat Amy wanted to tell her all about a new guy she had met. Beca listened intently until Amy started comparing him to a dingo in heat, at which point Beca said she had to go, but promise she would call her back later in the week.

Beca had just finished shoveling moo shu pork into her mouth when she heard a commotion outside. She ignored it; her apartment was close to the pool and there were always people partying out there, if she got up to check every little sound coming from outside she would drive herself crazy. The sounds continued, she could hear some type of music, some yelling, and a bunch of cheers. She checked out the clock, it was eight thirty, it was still light out, but it was a weeknight, the yelling was probably a security guard, they got pissy if you made any sound past eight. She sat back and reached for her remote control; before she turned the volume up she recognized the song playing outside. She had watched the movie in college, the final romantic gesture had made her cry.

The thought of someone giving a musical tribute to their crush in her complex compelled her to stand up and walk out on her balcony. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect what she saw before her.

Standing in the middle of a planter two floors below was Jesse.

Above his head, blaring the song In Your Eyes, was Jesses laptop. To his right were two security guards yelling that he had better turn off the music and remove himself from the property before they called the cops. Behind the security guards the population of the apartment's swimming pool were cheering Jesse on, and yelling at the security guards to get lost.

Throughout the complex people had come out onto their balconies to see what was going on. Becas neighbor, a tall leggy blond leaned over her balcony looking down on Jesse. She straightened up and looked at Beca, "well, you had better go down there and get him or I will." Beca looked down at Jesse and smiled, then turned and ran though her apartment and out the door.

"Thank God," Jesse said when Beca neared him. "I love you Beca Mitchell, but I don't think I want to go to jail for you," he said with a smile to her and with a weary glance at the security guards. Beca nodded at the guards as she walked past them and then stood up on the edge of the planter right in front of Jesse, "come here you weirdo." Before she knew it they were kissing, and her apartment complex erupted in hoots, hollers, and whistles all around.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time they pulled apart and moved to get out of the planter the security guards had walked away. Jesse jumped to the ground and then offered Beca a hand down from the edge of the planter. Once her feet were on the ground she looked up at him, "hi," she smile.

"Hey," he smiled back.

"That was some show. I am pretty sure I can never show my face in this complex again," she said while entwining her fingers with his.

"Well that was some track you sent me."

"You liked it?" she asked

"Yeah it was okay," he replied as they started to walk towards her apartment, "It's got a sick beat, and you can kind of sense that the couple likes each other when you listen to it."

They had reached the top of the stairs going into Beca's apartment, "yeah, I was kind of going for that, and maybe a little more."

Jesse pushed her door open and Beca stepped inside, "really," Jesse said following into her apartment and setting his laptop down on the floor, "what kind of more?"

Beca licked her lips, she was nervous, "Oh you know, maybe a little I'm sorry, for fighting in the parking lot."

Jesse was smiling. Beca had let go of his hand to shut the door behind them and he leaned up against her hallway wall, "I see," Beca leaned against the opposite wall from Jesse and bit her lip, "was there more?" Jesse asked, "That you wanted me to get from the song?" He knew that talking about her feelings was hard for Beca, but he couldn't stop himself from trying to get her to say more.

Her heart was beating abnormally fast and she had an overwhelming feeling that she was going to pass out, but it was now or never. "Oh you know. Maybe breaking up all those years ago was a really bad idea. Like the worst idea ever and maybe I regretted it every day. And maybe, maybe I have missed you every day. And maybe I still love you and…"

Before she could finish Jesse had her body pined to the wall with his, his mouth was on her mouth his hands in her hair, then on her back, her waist. Her arms were up around his neck pulling him closer to her. Their kisses weren't gentle; it was as if they were devouring each other trying to make up for every missed kiss from the last six years. His arms slipped down to her butt and he lifted her up, her legs wrapped around his waist and he pressed her back into the wall. His lips left hers and started making their way down her throat; he wanted to taste her everywhere.

He pulled back and they were both panting. He looked her in the eyes and said, "your room?" she nodded and pointed down the hall. As he carried her towards her bedroom Beca's mouth went to work on his neck, then his earlobes, his body shuddered as she bit the space just below his ear where she knew he was sensitive.

He made it into her room and tossed her onto the bed. He had to hold himself back from pouncing on her, "Everything you said, I felt the same. I never stopped loving you." She sat up onto her knees, she was breathing heavy and smiling. "I love you," Jesse said walking to the edge of the bed.

"I love you too," Beca replied, reaching up to unbutton his shirt. Jesse reached down and pulled the tank top Beca was wearing over her head. He was blown away by the beauty of her.

Beca pushed Jesse's shirt off his shoulders and pulled his undershirt up, he helped her pull it over his head and threw it to the ground. Her hands started to explore his abs, they were perfectly toned and smooth. She leaned forward and pressed little kisses down them until she reached the top of his jeans. She heard him suck in his breath when she unbuttoned them and slid the zipper down. She looked up at him and bit her lip. It drove him wild and he pushed her back onto the bed, he kicked his jeans off and climbed on top of her.

They were kissing again, their hands exploring each other's bodies, while their hips ground into each other. Beca slipped her hands into Jesse's boxers, her small hands found his erection and he moaned. Within seconds his hands were at her hips pulling her pants and panties off of her body. He stood up and looked down at her fully naked body and smiled, he had never seen anything so beautiful or perfect in all his life. He pulled his boxers down and tossed them to the floor, then climbed back onto the bed and positioned himself over her.

They locked eyes as he slipped into her. He slowed and held her gaze, her fingers slid up his sides and onto his back. He bit her bottom lip and she whimpered, he pulled out and then thrust back in. Beca let out a cry, her nails dug into his back and she arched into him. He drove deeper into her, relishing in the feel of her all around him. As he pumped into her he bent down and bit her neck, she let out a moan. His tongue made its way down her chest circling her nipple before he sucked it into his mouth. Her hands twisted into his hair and she pulled. Jesse thrust deeper and Beca moaned then called out his name. The sound of his name on her lips drove him wild and he thrust harder, her legs wrapped around him pulling him in deeper. His hand slid down her leg till he reached her butt, he grabbed it and pulled her to him, trying to get as deep as he could. Beca's moans became faster and he knew she was getting close, he quickened his pace. "Jesse," Beca whimpered. He pumped into her again and felt her climax, as she tightened around him he was pushed over the top. He cried out her name as he released into her and then collapsed.

They lay that way, twisted around each other, for an unknown amount of time. It could have been minutes or hours even. They didn't speak, just held each other as close as they could, Beca's face snuggled into Jesses neck, his chin resting atop her head. When they finally broke apart Jesse rolled to the side and propped himself up on his elbow. "Talk about an amazing ending to a day," Jesse smiled down at Beca, and she smiled back up to him. She leaned up quickly and gave him a kiss, then pulled him back down to her. They pulled the blankets out from underneath them and tucked themselves in, cuddling close. They both closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep, feeling more content then either of them had in at least six years.


	10. Chapter 10

Jesse woke hours later. He had somehow managed to sleep with his arm around Beca, her head resting on his chest, her body curled up into his side. He kissed the top of her head and inhaled deeply, she smelt like Beca, like a mixture of herbal shampoo and vanilla perfume. Over the years he had made a point of staying away from girls who smelled like her. He knew no one could smell quite like Beca but even a hint of vanilla or Herbal Essence shampoo would turn his mind straight to her. He had found himself on a few dates, trying to talk to a girl, but thinking only of Beca naked in a shower washing her hair. It made for quite a distraction.

He looked down at her, and his chest swelled with a feeling that could only be described as sheer happiness. He looked at the clock on her night stand, it was five am. He was too happy to sleep. He looked around her room. It was huge, he remembered the sign in front of her complex said luxury apartments, and he figured the rest of her apartment was big.

Her bedroom was normal, boring even. Her walls were painted a soft blue and her furniture was a cherry wood. There was a stereo set up on her dressers and piles of cds were stacked around it. In the corner was a plush chair with an ottoman, next to it was a small table with a lamp. There was a coffee mug, some books and some wrappers strewn across the top of the table. Jesse could picture Beca laying there reading or listening to her music and drinking coffee. He decided he wanted to explore. Beca was still lying on his chest so he slid her off, kissing her head again. He climbed out of bed and searched for his pants. He pulled them on and walked out of her room. He hadn't paid much attention to her place last night, he had been slightly distracted.

Now he was interested, he had seen where she worked, her office at the studio was clean and plain, but now he wanted to know where she lived. What type of home had she made for herself without him?

The walls of the hallway were lined with vintage concert prints; she had everything from Led Zeppelin to Bruce Springsteen. Off of the hallway was a guest bath, it was painted turquoise, above the toilet was a giant print, it made him smile. It was hot pink, on the top was a disco ball, below that were the words, 'keep calm and mix music.' Pink was so not Beca's color, he figured a Bella had gotten it for her. He stepped back into the hallway and pushed open the door across from the bathroom. He had found her studio.

It was nothing like her office at work, instead of being plain and empty this room was full of things. There were bookshelves running along three of the walls stuffed with millions of albums. On top of them were picture frames and papers, random things like hats and trophies. The fourth wall had a table covered with recording equipment. There were speakers everywhere and a microphone in the corner. A keyboard lay against a wall and he noticed a mixer and turn table.

He looked up above the bookshelves. The walls were covered with awards. Clearly Beca was good at what she did, he looked close at them. There was an American Music Award, and International Dance Music Awards, multiple DJ Awards, even a Hip Hop Award for Producer of the year. Someone had framed magazine articles of Beca from DJ Magazine, one from LA times, Blender, and SPIN. There was even one from Billboard listing numerous chart toping songs that Beca had produced. Then he noticed the framed records. It looked like some songs that she had produced went platinum and she had received framed records complete with a photo of her and the artist. From the look of the pictures Beca was keeping some pretty famous company. It was amazing she could accomplish so much in five or so years.

Above the table was a bulletin board. Jesse could see pictures of Beca with the Bellas, a picture of her with her Dad, and a couple with a little girl. There were concert tickets pinned and a few receipts and lots of drawings clearly done by a little kid. What he saw next made him laugh out loud. There was a huge stack of papers clipped together and hanging off the board. They were all nomination letters, Grammys, International Music, American Music, Billboard, BET, MTV, all notifying her of her nomination for everything from best track to Producer of the year. And there were tons; she clearly received a stack of these each year. People worked their lives to receive these and Beca had them chip clipped and tacked to a wall.

Jesse shook his head and walked out of her studio. He could see a kitchen lined with cherry wood cabinets and marble counters covered with dishes. There was a table and chairs and a bar set up in the corner. There were more bookshelves, this time they had a mixture of albums, books, and picture frames. The living room had two couches, a coffee table covered in take out containers, end tables with lamps and a flat screen. On the ground in a corner was a basket full of toys. Jesse looked at it with interest; he wondered who had a kid. There was a fireplace on one wall and above it was a painting.

He knew that painting, he had purchased it for Beca. He had been with Cutting Edge a year and had received a huge yearend bonus. He thought about taking them to Hawaii or some other place where they could take a break from their crazy lives in LA. Then he saw this hanging in a gallery. It cost a fortune but she had loved it. It was a Jim Torok original titled Im Feeling Quite Desperate.

Beca had been struggling all year to get a job in her industry and he knew she was feeling very desperate. It looked like a comic strip where the artist painted images about how he used to be good at art, but how he felt like his current work wasn't, he wanted to give up. And then on the last panel he wrote, 'No, I won't give up. I am a good artist! I am better than most of the posers calling themselves artist. Tomorrow is a new day.' It had made him laugh and Beca had loved it. It was exactly what she had needed to see. They hung it over their couch in their little apartment. Every time she saw it she said she knew she couldn't give up. And soon she got her job with SoundBox. Knowing it had been hanging in her home all these years made him feel like a part of him had been with her all this time.

He glanced at the clock on the microwave, it was nearing six. Jesse walked into Beca's kitchen; it was kind of a mess. There were dirty dishes on the counter and in the sink, he checked the dishwasher, totally clean. Same old Beca, it had always been his job to empty the dishwasher, if he didn't do it she would allow the dirty dishes to stack up for days, looks like old habits die hard. He walked to the refrigerator, there were drawings stuck to it like the ones he had found in her studio. They were cute, he guessed they were all from a little girl, there were lots of flowers and rainbows (or what he guessed were flowers and rainbows, this kid must still be little). He decided his favorite was one that was clearly supposed to be Beca and this little kid. There were two stick figures, one with red hair and one with brown. The brown haired one was taller and had on what looked like to be headphones. He wondered who the little girl was; she obviously spent a lot of time around here.

He opened the fridge and found it pretty sparse. He closed the door and looked around, there were a few bananas on the counter and a coffee maker, "ahh," he said to himself, "the breakfast of champions." He brewed some coffee and poured Beca and himself cups, snapped off two bananas and headed to her bedroom.

Beca was curled up just like he had left her. It always surprised him how small and fragile she looked when she slept, she certainly didn't act that way when she was awake. He set the coffee and bananas down and reached for Beca.

"Wake up sleepy head," Jesse said giving her a light shake. Beca made a sleepy moan and Jesse smiled. "Wake up or I am going to have to come in there and get you."

Beca opened one of her eyes and looked at Jesse, "promise?" she asked then closed her eye again. Jesse pulled the covers aside and slid in next to her. She snuggled close to him, "I thought maybe I had dreamt last night," she said into his chest.

"Am I that much of a nightmare," Jesse joked. He wrapped his arms around her, "I tried to make you breakfast in bed but you have no food, so I brought you a banana."

Beca smiled, Jesse was such a gentlemen. "Sorry, I eat out a lot."

Jesse kissed the top of her head. Part of him still couldn't believe where he was. He had made the plan to find Beca while he was still in London. At the time he told himself it was just to reconnect, maybe start up their friendship again. Then his mom had started prattling on about dating Beca again, and then Donald and Bengi. He had sent them both an email that said '_guess who's coming to America_!'

Donald cut right to the chase and emailed him back, "_Lilly says you should hook back up with Beca_."

Benji was a little more reserved. He had called and asked for the details. He and his girlfriend Irene had made a trip to London the year before to visit, he said they were excited to see him again and would make a trip to California whenever Jesse had gotten settled. They talked about the new house and the scoring company Jesse was planning on starting. Then he gently asked, "Have you thought about what you are going to do if you run into Beca?" Benji was no fool. He had known all along that Jesse still had feelings for her but he never asked about it, he always figured if Jesse needed to talk he would. At the time Jesse told him that he was planning on looking her up for old times sake, Benji had said that that sounded cool.

It was a few months later when Jesse called to tell his Best Friend that he had a plan, not to look up Beca but to win her back. Benji once again said it sounded cool. "Cool? Jesse asked.

"Yeah cool," Bengi said. "I kind of knew you were going to do this all along. I just didn't want to say anything before you figured it out yourself."

"Figure what out?" Jesse asked.

"That you are still in love with Beca," Benji has said as if it were a matter of fact.

He had felt like he had everyone's support, that they were all rooting for him to win her back, and that had given him the confidence to arrange them to work together. But he had begun to doubt everything after they fought. He has questioned if they were meant to get back together. But here he was, lying in her bed. They had both confessed their love for each other and he knew they were supposed to be together.

"You should take the day off of work," Jesse said to Beca as she climbed out of bed to get ready for work. She sat back down and looked at him.

Beca smiled, "well, that is certainly doable. You see I have finished all my current commitments, but _you_ haven't. If I recall correctly we are on a tight schedule, and you already took yesterday off. I'm no genius but I am pretty sure this movie isn't going to score itself."

Jesse made a scowl and Beca laughed. "How about we both go to work like responsible adults and then I can come over and see your place."

Jesse continued scowling, he had been apart from Beca for years, one night with her certainly wasn't enough, but she was right. He needed to get this film done and the faster he did it the faster he could get back to her. "Fine," Jesse said rolling over so that his face was in Beca's pillow.

"Good Boy," Beca said patting him on the back of his head. She then got up and walked towards her bathroom to take a shower. She stopped in the doorway and looked back at Jesse in her bed. "You coming?" Jesse sat up and looked at Beca standing naked in the bathroom doorway. He jumped up and bolted after her, "you don't have to ask me twice!"


	11. Chapter 11

"Have her give me a call whenever she can. We will start mapping out the album on Monday but I want to get an idea of what her overall goals are." Beca was talking to her assistant Angela. She had finished the tracks for the movie yesterday and she was getting a head start on an album she would start working on next week.

"Okay, I will give her agent a call," Angela said making a note on her blackberry. "So, did you manage to make up with Jesse?"

Beca had started reviewing some lyrics that they would be recording next week but stopped when she heard Angela's question. "What?" Beca asked looking up.

"Did you make up with Jesse? You know that hot guy who you have been working with all week. The one you were fighting with in the parking lot." Angela looked questioningly at Beca.

"Um, yeah, we resolved that." Beca said, purposely avoiding eye contact with her assistant. She didn't know if she was ready to divulge all the details of their relationship.

"You _resolved_ that?" Angela asked with a knowing smile on her face, obviously something was going on between them that Beca didn't want to talk about; good thing Angela was so good at getting info out of Beca. "So there is nothing going on there?"

Beca gave her assistant a little shrug, "nah."

"Great!" Angela said, turning from Beca so that she could hide her laugh, "I think he is really cute, I think I might ask him out. I will go to ask Phil for his number…"

"No," said Beca falling for her assistants trap. Angela smirked at her boss, "so who is he? Your boyfriend?"

Beca internally chastised herself for being so dumb. "He's…" Beca wasn't exactly sure what she and Jesse officially were. "He _was_ my boyfriend. My college boyfriend, and then we moved here together. And then he moved away and we broke up."

"But now he is back?" Angela asked nosily trying to get some gossip, "And you guys are together?"

Beca gave a slight smile to her assistant, and then her cell phone rang. Her smile grew as she picked up her phone and waved Angela out of the room.

Angela glared, "saved by the bell," she said and pulled her bosses door shut.

It was Chloe! "How was school?" Beca asked.

"Sometimes I regret becoming a kindergarten teacher; a boy blew a booger on me today." Chloe complained into the phone, she sounded tired; it must have been a long day. "But enough about my wonderful life, you want to come over for a barbeque tomorrow night?"

"Sure," Beca said, she was momentarily distracted by the thought of introducing Ella to Jesse.

"Hello? Beca?" Chloe practically shouted into the phone, "are you ignoring me? What's going on? Did Jesse call? Did you guys make up?

"What?" Beca asked, her attention back on her best friend, "what makes you think something happened?!"

"Something did happen!" Chloe gushed. "Did he call you? Or did you grow some balls and call him?"

"Well…" Beca began.

"Oh my God! You guys had sex! Was it amazing? Was he as good as he used to be? It was better than before wasn't it? This is so wonderful!" Chloe took a breath of air, Beca was sure it was in preparation to attack her with more questions. She spoke up before her best friend could talk again.

"It was wonderful," Beca told her friend, "And that is all I am going to say on that subject." Beca could picture the look of disappointment on Chloe's face. "And I would love to come over tomorrow night. And I am sure Jesse would love to come over tomorrow too, if that is ok."

"Of course it's ok! Beca…" Chloe started, "I am just so happy. You and Jesse were so good together and I know you aren't one to complain, and you would never have admit that you weren't happy but, well I am just so happy that you guys are back together! I love you and you deserve to be happy!"

Beca smiled, "Thanks Chloe. I love you too, but enough of the sappy stuff. I should get out of here, there is a very cute man waiting for me."

Jesse text Beca the address to his new place and told her where he had hidden a spare key. He told her to feel free to head over whenever she wanted; he would leave by five and grab dinner for them on the way.

Beca left the studio a little after four. She really didn't want to get to Jesses place before him but she was too excited to get any work done. She typed his address into her GPS and backed out of her parking spot.

Chloe had been right; Beca thought as she merged onto the freeway, she and Jesse had been good together. At least up until the last year, but they had been great for five years before that and had the job not come up in the UK the two would have probably worked all of their issues out. She hoped that they could go back to the way they were. She instantly felt silly for thinking that. They had only been talking again for what, three days. She didn't even know where they stood. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend again? Were they jumping right back to where they were when they split? Or were they going to take it slow? Well obviously they weren't going to take '_it'_ slow; Beca blushed at the thought of them in bed together last night. She shook her head; she needed to focus on driving.

Beca's mind started to wonder again as she slowed in traffic. She remembered having similar thoughts to these before. She had wondered these same things the night after the Bellas won their first ICCA Finals. She had celebrated their win with Jesse, in her hotel room bed. They two had woken up together, naked, excited, and a bit nervous. They had traveled back to Barden separately with their a cappella groups, never having a chance to discuss what they had done or where it left them. She had had a few boyfriends in the past, and a few one night stands, but Jesse didn't quite seem to fit into either category, Beca wasn't sure what they were or what was going to happen.

The next morning Jesse had shown up at her dorm room with coffee and the two walked together to their classes. They just sort of went with it. They hung out in their spare time, made out in the radio station, continued her moviecation, and had a lot of sex. A month had gone by and they still hadn't had a talk about what they were.

The two were lounging in the quad enjoying their last days together before summer break when Beca's Dad ran across them.

"Hey Beca, I have been trying to get a hold of you," her Dad said as he squat down to get more on her level as she lay on the grass. "Sheila really wants to do dinner before you go back to your Moms, what are you doing Friday night?"

Beca sat up and made a face, "umm, ahh, uh I think I'm busy."

"Oh come on Becs," Her Dad pleaded, "it won't kill you to spend a little time with us before you go. Hey I'll tell you what you can bring your boyfriend." He slapped Jesse on the shoulder and Beca thought she would throw up, she glanced over at Jesse, she didn't know how he would respond to what her Dad had just called him, but he had a huge smile on his face. "I would love to go Mr. Mitchell that sounds great." And like that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. If she'd had any doubt he put it to rest when she visited his parents that summer, he introduced her as his girlfriend to everyone in town.

The GPS telling her to exit on the right brought her back to the present. "I guess we will have to go with the flow again," she said to herself.

Beca drove past Whitley Heights every day on her way home. It was an affluent area, much like Hollywood Hills where she lived. They had lived in a rundown apartment when they first moved to LA and her next few hadn't been much better. As the years went on her salary went up and she had made the choice to upgrade her living standards. She had opted to rent a luxury apartment. Beca looked around her as she took another right, she had assumed Jesse had moved into an apartment too but from the look of the neighborhood he had moved into a house. As the GPS told her she had reached her destination, she realized Jesse had moved into a really nice house.

The houses on the block had been built up a hill so that they could all have access to the view of the city. Beca parked her car on the street and got out. From there she could only see a dark stucco wall covered in ivy. To her right were some steps leading to a small locked gate. She knew Jesse had left her a key under a rock on the other side. She looked through the gate to find the rock but was distracted by the beautiful house. It was Mediterranean style, one of the beautiful homes built here in LA during the 1920's. From where she stood she could see floral trees and huge palms all around the house, giant windows and a huge balcony. Beca found the key and unlocked the gate. There was a short brick walk to the front door, Beca crossed it and let herself in.

From the looks of it Jesse didn't have a lot of furniture. There was a black leather couch, recliner and coffee table positioned in front of a huge tv resting on top of a black and white rug. The walls were a crisp white and Jesse had adorned them with huge framed movie posters. She recognized the God Father and Jaws but there were many more that she didn't know. Between the framed posters were huge floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. Beca walked over to the windows and looked out in awe. On the opposite wall there were dark wood bookcases built into the walls full of film and music books and Jesses entire collection of DVD's. She looked around the room, it definitely resemble a bachelor pad, well a really expensive, empty bachelor pad.

She followed the hardwood floors through the downstairs. She saw a stairwell on the right leading to the second floor, a clean white kitchen to the left next to a dining room where Jesse had put a table and chairs and a ton of unpacked boxes. She ran her finger along the writing on one of them; she recognized it instantly as her own. 'Storage' was written across it in thick black ink. Jesse must have been storing the stuff he hadn't moved with him all these years. She wondered if they had been in an LA storage unit all these years or if they had managed to make their way to his parents house. She flicked the box and walked on towards the end of the house where huge French doors led out onto an enclosed brick patio.

There was a fancy barbeque and patio table and chairs set up. A few feet away there were two lounge chairs. Beca smile and shook her head, Jesse hand fully furnished his patio but not the inside of the house. She sat down in a chair and took it all in. What in the world was Jesse doing with such a big house. Beca hadn't finished walking through it but she guessed it had at least three bedrooms. What was he going to do with them, get roommates? She was pondering what _she_ would do with such a large house when she heard a door slam.

"Lucy, I'm home," Jesse yelled out doint his best Ricky Ricardo impression. Beca felt her heart instantly start beating faster. She stood and walked back towards the French doors.

Jesse tossed his keys and the pizza he had picked up on the coffee table in the living room then headed down the hall. He had no idea where Beca could be but he figured the main hallway was as good a place to start looking as any. He had just finished yelling, "Come out come out wherever you are," when he saw Beca step up and onto the threshold of the back door. He knew it was a completely random fluke and would never happen again but before him was the most undeniably beautiful thing he had ever seen. Beca stood with one hand up on the huge French door steadying herself as she stepped in. The floral vines on the wall of the back patio shifted in the light breeze framing the doorway, and the evening sun shown in creating a haze of color and light all around Beca. It was like one of those scenes in a movie where the guy sees the girl for the first time. He knew it would never happen again. The sun and wind, flowers, and Beca would never all alight just right but it didn't matter. That one second of seeing Beca like that made spending his savings on this giant house totally worth it.

Jesse stared another minute as Beca walked towards him. "What?" She asked, "you look funny, are you ok?"

"And the spell is broken," Jesse thought then chuckled to himself, "Seeing you in this house, it's kind of surreal for me." Beca smiled, she slid her hands onto his chest, then leaned up and kissed him gently on the lips. Jesse wound his arms around her frame and held her to him. He deepened the kiss. His tongue slid along her bottom lip and then entered her mouth dancing with her tongue. After a minute or so they stepped back from each other, both in need of air. Jesse slid his fingers between Beca's and held her hand.

"This is some house. You must pay a fortune in rent," she said looking up at him.

"Oh, I don't pay rent," he paused for dramatic effect, "I own this baby."

"Seriously? You have to be kidding right?" She looked at Jesse for confirmation of his joke but he just smiled. "You seriously own this house? It's huge, what are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know a gym in one room, a place for guest to stay in the other. I already converted part of the upstairs into a sound room and studio," He replied nonchalantly.

Beca looked genuinely impressed. "Have your parents seen in? What do they think?"

Jesse pursed his lips, "Would it be less cool if I told you my mom picked it out?"

Beca laughed at Jesse, "it totally looks like a place your mom would like." Jesse faked a frowned, "Oh don't worry, you are still cool to me," she teased. "Honestly though, it is amazing. Good job," she said and gave him another kiss. Jesse beamed at her, her approval totally made his day.

"So pizza or the tour first?" Jesse asked. Beca picked the tour and told him the areas of the house she had already checked out. On the way to the stairs Jesse pointed out a room she had missed, "The gym," he said as they peaked in through the door. There were some loose weights on the ground and a treadmill in the middle of the room.

They made their way upstairs; the first room would be for his guests. They pushed the door open and looked inside; there was a bed, and nothing else.

"I love the way you decorated, do we call this minimalistic?" she said with a smile. Jesse laughed.

"I was living in a one room flat in London. I don't really have a lot of stuff. This was my old bed from back home," he said with a smile and pulled the door shut. To the right was a guest bathroom, to the left his sound room and studio. It was awesome.

"My Dad helped me set it up," Jesse explained. "The sale of the house went through while I was still in the UK so my parents flew here and pick up my keys. I had shipped all of my stuff so they got it and what stuff I still had in storage and moved me in. My Dad had already started on the soundproofing when I finally flew in."

Beca looked around; Jesse had converted this huge old bedroom into a modern soundproof studio. There was a lot of equipment similar to her own, used for making music and recording. One whole wall was set up as a projection screen so that Jesse could watch the movie he was working on while he was scoring. There was a desk with multiple computer screens, and a giant sound board. "This is pretty awesome Jess," Beca complimented.

"Well I figured there would be times I wanted to stay home and do work, and you know my Dad, he loves projects like these." Beca checked out the room again and then followed Jesse out to the other end of the hall. He opened the door onto the master bedroom.

Beca may have been impressed with the studio, but this room was by far her favorite in the house. It was huge, soft white and full of light. One whole wall was floor to ceiling windows that opened up onto a balcony overlooking the city. There was an old fireplace in the corner that Jesse had hung a flat screen over. There was a giant master bath that had a double sink, claw foot tub and a separate shower room. Jesse had a few pieces of bedroom furniture like a dresser and nightstand, and then there was the giant bed. It was low to the ground and covered in white sheets and a huge soft looking white down comforter. It looked very inviting.


	12. Chapter 12

Beca looked at the bed and then over at Jesse. He had a smile on his face. "I like your bed," she said.

"Oh it's a great bed," Jesse agreed kicking off his shoes and pulling his tee shirt over his head, leaving the items in the middle of his bedroom on the wooden floor. He walked over to Beca and sat her down on the edge. She had worn a shirt, skirt and boots to work, Jesse knelt down to zip her boots off.

"It's very comfy," she said looking down at Jesse as he pulled her boots off of her legs. He stood up in front of her and removed his jeans and boxers. Beca smiled at him standing in all his glory before her. He reached for her top and pulled it over her head, then slipped an arm behind her and unhooked her bra. "To truly enjoy it you should really lay down," he said pushing her back so that she lay on the bed in front of him. He unbuttoned her skirt and pulled it and her panties off. She bit her lip and then scoot back on the mattress, Jesse climbed onto the bed after her. He reached for her and tried to adjust himself over her but she twisted and wound up on top of him straddling his hips.

God she was beautiful, Jesse thought as he looked at Beca sitting naked on top of him. He reached for her breasts and cupped them both in his hands, she gave a gasp. He ran his thumbs over her nipples and a small moan escaped her lips. He pinched both of her nipples and she moaned louder, closing her eyes and tilting her head slightly back. He smiled and pinched harder; she moaned again and rocked her hips into him. His hands left her breasts and moved down to her hip and clit. She was already wet, he was insanely turned on. He slipped two fingers inside of her and she moaned his name, "Umm Jesse." He slid his fingers in and out a few more times but couldn't wait any longer. He slipped his fingers out and grabbed her hips, gently lifting her up and onto his very erect member.

Beca looked him directly in the eyes as she slowly sank down onto him. She watched his eyes widen and his breath quicken as she moved up and down. He gripped her hips helping her move. She leaned forward supporting herself with her hands on his chest and she quickened her pace. Jesse squeezed her hips and raised his own to meet her. He pulled her down onto him as he thrust upwards driving him into her deeply. They kept pace for a few more thrusts then Jesse felt Beca's movements become a little erratic, he knew she was nearing her orgasm. He mustered his strength holding her hips down and onto him and thrust up as fast and he could. She let out a cry and collapsed on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her holding her body to him and thrust twice more before he too had an orgasm.

He held her for a minute then she rolled off of him and onto her side. "Best bed ever!" She said and gave him a smile. He reached for her, her stomach gave a grumble, and Jesse laughed, "Hungry?" Beca nodded and Jesse rolled off his bed and disappeared into the house.

A few minutes later he returned with their pizza, two glasses and a bottle of wine. Beca had crawled under the covers pulling the white sheet up and over her breast, she sat up and they dug into their feast.

"How much of the movie did you get done today," Beca asked taking a sip of wine.

"I finished the scene. I just need to go through it all and make sure it is perfect then I am going to send it on its way."

"Good job," she said taking a bite of pizza. "Oh Chloe is having a barbeque tomorrow, do you want to go?"

"I would love to," Jesse said.

"Good, Ella is going to love you, she has a thing for guys," Beca said with a wink.

"Ella?" Jesse asked, "And who is Ella?"

Beca cuddled up to Jesse, "she is Chloe and Tom's daughter, my God daughter. And she is perfect and adorable, and I love her. "

Jesse smiled; it was adorable to hear Beca talk about a little girl like this. He kissed the top of her head and put his arm around her. After a few hours of movie watching Jesse got up and used the bathroom, when he came back he pulled on some pajamas pants from his dresser. "You're spending the night right?" Jesse asked.

Beca figured that the evening would end this way so she had packed some clothes, but they were still in her car. She moved to get out of bed. "Here, sleep in this," Jesse said as he threw her one of his shirts. She pulled it on, it was huge. Jesse had always loved the way she looked in his clothes. He climbed into bed next to her and turned off the light. He gave Beca a kiss and said goodnight.

Jesse woke her a few hours later. It was still dark and nowhere near time to wake up. She was sleeping with him pressed firmly against her backside, spooning. He was softly kissing her neck and she could feel his erection. Beca had gotten used to waking like this while they were in college. They would be squeezed together in the thin dorm beds, he would kiss her awake and touch her body until she would reach behind her and help guide him into her from behind. They would move together silently muffling their moans into their pillows so that their roommates wouldn't hear and wake up.

Just like they had when they were younger, they sleepily made love, this time not worrying about stifling their cries. When they were done they fell back asleep and didn't wake until Jesses alarm went off.

Jesse kissed Beca on the top of the head and made his way to the shower. He dressed afterwards and set a clean towel next to a still sleeping Beca. "Wake up sleeping beauty; I will grab your stuff from your car while you take a shower." He kissed her on the forehead and headed down stairs.

Beca took a long shower, enjoying the feel of the hot water hitting her shoulders and pouring down her back. She wrapped the towel around her as she got out and walked to the sink looking for some toothpaste. She had applied it to her finger and was rubbing her teeth when Jesse walked in with her clothes in one hand and eggs and bacon in the other. "You could have used mine you know," he said mentally making a note to pick up a toothbrush for her. She smiled at him and reached for her clothes. As she dressed she took bites of her breakfast.

"It's delicious," Beca said biting down on a piece of bacon."

"Kind of like you," Jesse said as he took a nip out of her neck. The two finished getting ready and then made their way down the stairs. Beca looked for her purse, "so do you want to meet back here tonight and then go to Chloe's?"

Jesse walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed something from within it. "That sounds perfect," he said throwing something at Beca, she caught it, it was a juice pouch.

"For the road," he said with a smile. Beca rolled her eyes and put the pouch in her bag. She turned to follow Jesse out of the kitchen and to the front door when she spotted his spare key on the counter where she had placed it the day before. She grabbed it, "Jesse your key."

"You should hold onto it," he said with a smile. Beca started to protest but Jesse had already walked out of the room.


	13. Chapter 13

Beca was running late, only by a half an hour, but they were guaranteed to hit traffic now. The twenty minute drive to Chloe's was now sure to take an hour. Thankfully Jesse was already home so they could leave once she reached his house.

She pulled her car up in front of Jesse's house and got out. As she walked up the brick path she thought of Stacy. Her fellow Bella had studied architecture at Barden and Beca knew she would love Jesse's 1920's Mediterranean home. She would have to remember to take a picture of it and send it to her. She rang the doorbell. After a minute Jesse opened the door, "Don't you have a key?" He asked her.

Beca stood on tiptoes and kissed him, "Just because you forced me to take your key doesn't mean I have to use it." Jesse gave her an irritated look, Beca just smiled.

He walked into the living room to turn off the movie he had been watching, "You're late. I was afraid I had scared you off."

"Sorry I got stuck at work," she said sitting down on his couch.

"Hot client?" He asked sitting down next to her.

"No, not a client at all," explained Beca as Jesse kissed her neck. "There were some guys renting out one of our recording rooms, I peaked in to see if they needed any help and I got stuck."

Jesse began unbuttoning her top, "They weren't your clients but you were helping them? For free? Aren't you some famous producer, shouldn't you be charging a thousand dollars an hour to help people out?"

It took Beca a second to respond, Jesse had unbuttoned her top and was kissing her breasts, her brain temporarily didn't work. "Umm uh... We all help the newbies out for free. None of us would have gotten anywhere if we hadn't gotten help; it's kind of our thing." Jesse started on the button of her jeans. Becca swatted Jesse away and stood up to rebutton her shirt, if she let him continue they would never get there. Jesse frowned, "There will be plenty of time for that later," she said and then gave him a kiss.

Jesse stood up and adjusted his pants, playing with Beca had clearly turned him on. "Alright let's go. Your car or mine?"

"I don't care," Beca replied laughing at Jesse's inability to walk properly. He grabbed his keys off of the table and turned to give Beca a smile. "I'll go get my car," he said turning and walking towards the door. "Don't forget to use your key to lock up on your way out," he said with a wicked smile.

So much for not using his key Beca thought to herself.

Jesse laughed at Beca when she glared at him as she got into the car. "You are such a freak," he said causing her to glare again. "So where are we headed?

"Santa Monica. They are still in the same area, they just moved from that apartment into a house a little ways away," Beca said while buckling in. "You remember how to get to Santa Monica right?

It was Jesses turn to glare at Beca, "Of course I do."

Beca laughed at the look he gave her, "How am I supposed to know? You have been overseas for years." He steered the car towards the freeway and gave her a smile.

"So how often do you see them?" Jesse asked.

"Chloe and Ella? A couple of times a month. I try to watch Ella whenever Chloe and Tom want to go out. Its hard on them having both of their parents back east so I try to give them a break whenever I can."

"And the rest of the Bellas?" He asked.

"Well I saw everyone but Aubrey last weekend. They were all here for Ella's birthday."

"Really?" Jesse asked, "That sucks that I missed them."

She smiled. "Yeah we try and see each other as much as possible but it isn't always easy with everyone all over the place. Cynthia Rose is in New York, she writes music. She and Courtney got married last year." Jesse nodded his approval and Beca went on. "Amy spends most of her time in Atlanta, but part of the year she shows her dogs in Tasmania. Stacy is in Chicago working for an architecture firm, I was actually thinking we could send her a picture of your house, I think she would really love it." A smile spread across Jesses face, he loved that she had just said '_we _could send her a picture' he figured that it was just a slip of the tongue but it still made him happy.

"Aubrey is still in Atlanta. She just had a baby which is why she couldn't make it to Ella's birthday. And you know about Lilly, she always brings you up so I know you are still close to Donald. What about you, when was the last time you saw any of the guys?"

Jesse drove the car down the highway and began to talk, "well I saw Benji and his girlfriend Irene last year. They came to visit me in London; they are actually planning to make a trip out here in the next month or so."

"How long have they been together," Beca asked.

"A couple of years I think. They met at a magic convention," he said raising his eyebrows. "She is really great; she teaches math at a college in Boston, Benji is still teaching music at the elementary school."

Beca smiled, it made her happy to hear that Benji was doing well.

"Unicycle got married last year, I think he is back in Florida, I couldn't make the wedding but I think the rest of the Trebles were there. I don't know, I guess besides Benji and Donald I don't really keep in close contact with any of the guys. I think Bumper still lives around here though."

"Yeah, he does, "Beca said sounding annoyed. "I run into him every once in a while, I really try to avoid him but he is like a tick, he clings to you sucking, and driving you insane." Jesse laughed, sounded like a perfect description of Bumper.

They drove in silence for a while. Then Beca spoke, "you should have a housewarming party. You have been out of the country for so long I bet a lot of people would like to see you."

"What, and invite the old gang?" Jesse asked with a smile.

"Yeah, them and your other friends. You did live in LA for a couple of years, I am sure some of your old friends would like to see you. Clare and Jason from SoundBox always ask about you, and I am sure your old friends from the LA branch of Cutting Edge would want to come."

Jesse thought about it, "we could do that, it might be fun."

They drove a little longer, Beca directed them into a neighborhood and had him park in front of a large white house. "Looks like they are doing well for themselves," Jesse said parking the car.

"Well Tom made partner last year, so I guess they are." Beca smiled at Jesse and took his hand.

They rang the doorbell and had to wait a second before they heard the yelling. Jesse looked at Beca quizzically, she just smiled. The door flung open and a little chubby redhead ran out and grabbed Becas legs.

"Yor here yor here!" screamed the little one. Beca was laughing, Jesse stood back and couldn't help but laugh too. Chloe appeared in the doorway shaking her head. She bent down and grabbed her daughter, "Get off Auntie Beca, go, just go," she said placing her daughter down in the house and shooing her away. "Beca," Chloe said smiling at her friend.

"Chloe," Beca said smiling back, "this is Jesse," she joked pretending to present him.

"Oh is that who this is?" Chloe said playing along. She turned to Jesse and gave him a hug, "It's so good to see, come in come it." They walked into the house, "Jesse please excuse the toys." They were everywhere, Barbies, blocks, stuffed animals, even a tricycle laid on its side in the middle of the carpet. Jesse couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Beca elbowed him which only made him laugh harder. Tom walked into the room.

"Hey man, good to see you again," Tom said giving Jesse a half hug. He looked at Beca, "you, where's my beer." Beca smiled and shrugged her shoulders, the look on her face told Tom that she had forgotten it. "Ahh, Beca you are worthless. Come on Jesse I've got some drinks out here," he said indicating for Jesse to follow him. Jesse looked at Beca, she smiled and dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"So, anything new?" Chloe asked Beca while she chopped vegetables.

"I saw his house, it's beautiful." Beca told her friend, she stole one of the carrots Chloe had just chopped and bit it.

"And? You spent the night?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," she answered rolling her eyes. "What's up munchkin?" She asked Ella as she picked her up.

"Whos dat boy?" Ella asked.

"Auntie Beca's boyfriend." Chloe told her daughter, Beca glared at her. Chloe glared right back, "and someday they are going to get married and have rotten little children just. like. you," she said poking her daughter in the tummy and making her laugh. Beca set her God daughter down and turned on her friend.

"Don't tell her things like that," Beca said irritated.

"Like what? That he is your boyfriend?" Chloe questions in an exasperated tone.

"Well yeah for starters. Its been like two days after years apart. We need time to become boyfriend and girlfriend."

"No you don't," Chloe said to her friend. "You have already spent two nights together and I am assuming you are planning on staying with him tonight too. And since it's the weekend you will probably be together the next few days. What are you if not boyfriend and girlfriend? Besides sex addicts."

Beca stole another carrot and ignored the sex addict jab, "well its not something we have talked about, I am just going to go with the flow."

"Why?" Chloe asked and hit Becas hand away as she tried to steal another carrot. "Just ask him."

"No." Beca said, as if her friend had suggested something completely ridiculous.

"Fine," Chloe smiled. "Ella baby go ask Mr. Jesse if he is Becas boyfriend." The three year old said okay and ran off before Beca could stop her.

"Oh my God! Why am I friends with you?" Beca hissed and threw her carrot at her friend.

Jesse and Tom were talking about the Dodgers current season when Ella ran up to them. She leaned into Jesses leg. "Mr. Jesse are you Aunt Becas boyfriend?" Jesse smiled at the little girl

"Well I'm not sure, what do you think," he asked her. Ella smiled excitedly, like all three year olds she loved to feel important, she was excite to have some input.

"Do you like her?" She asked.

"Yes, very much," Jesse told her.

"Okay. You think she is pwitty?"

"I think she is the most beautiful girl in the world, well after you of course," Jesse said making the three year old blush.

Ella thought hard about what to ask next, "do you kiss her?"

Jesse looked at Tom, the man just shook his head and laughed, clearly he would be no help. "Well, we kiss sometimes. But sometimes we like to just hang out with each other and watch movies."

Ella tapped her chubby cheek with a pudgy finger as if pondering some great dilemma. "Okay, I think you are her boyfriend," she said with a big smile on her face.

"Well that is great news," Jesse said, "thank you for helping me figure that out. You are a really big help Ella." Ella blushed again and ran off to tell her mom. Jesse laughed and looked over at Tom who was shaking his head.

"She is just like her mother, getting into everyone business."

Ella sat between Beca and Jesse during dinner. When it was time for bed she couldn't decide who she wanted to put her to sleep so she asked if they would both come. Jesse grabbed Beca's hand and they followed the little one up to her room. Jesse sat back and watched Beca help Ella get ready for bed. She had obviously done this many times before, she knew the routine.

He had been too caught up with work over the years to think much about kids. His sister had just had one but he hadn't had much of a chance to spend time with it. He knew he wanted one someday but the idea still freaked him out. But watching Beca with Ella made him think that it wouldn't be too bad of an experience if he had one with her, after all having aca-children with Beca was inevitable, right.

"Mr. Jesse," Ella called beckoning Jesse over to tuck her in. When he got close she asked, "Mr. Jesse are you going to marry Aunt Beca?" Jesse laughed; he looked at Beca who had turned fifty shades of red. He knew she was having a rough night, between Ella and Chloe Beca just couldn't catch a break. So he leaned down and whispered into Ella's ear sparing Beca from hearing what he had to say. When he pulled back Ella nodded. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and said he was so glad to have met her and that he couldn't wait to play with her again. He stood up and gave Beca a peck on the cheek and slipped out of Ella's room.

Beca bent down to kiss her Goddaughter goodnight. Ella was too tired to have her aunt read her a story; she snuggled into her bed and closed her eyes. Beca got up and went to turn off the light. Just before she did curiosity got the best of her, "Ella baby what did Jesse whisper to you?"

Ella rolled over and opened her eyes, "that it's a secret and you are just gonna have to wait to see."


	14. Chapter 14

Jesse sat down in the living room next to Benji, he didn't even know what to say. Irene sat with her hands covering her mouth, a look of pure excitement and awe on her face. "I love LA," she gushed. Leaning towards Jesse she asked, "Is this normal for you? Does this happen all the time?!"

Jesse leaned back and shook his head, "No, this is totally not normal!" He looked at his best friend Benji who just smiled and shook his head, "Well," Benji started, "maybe this is what normal life is when you live with Beca Mitchell."

It hadn't been easy to get Beca to move in with him. It had been a three month long process starting when he had gotten her to take his spare key the first time she visited the house. That had been a very calculated move that he had anticipated little problems from, but all he got from it was resistance. Beca refused to use her key unless Jesse left her no choice, and each time she used it she would leave it on the counter where Jesse would find it and place it right back in her purse.

Jesse's next step had been trying to make his place seem more like hers. He picked up her favorite products and groceries and casually put them away so that she could find them and use them; of course this had just pissed her off.

"I know what you are doing and you had better stop," Beca said to Jesse one morning as she ate breakfast before heading off to work.

"What?" Jesse asked innocently.

"I keep finding crap all over your place; first my favorite pop tarts then my shampoo. Today I reached under the cabinet to replace your toilet paper and I found my brand of shaving gel and razors. This has to stop. I am not going to move in here so you can just stop filling it with my stuff," she finished.

"You have it all wrong, I'm not buying that stuff for you," Jesse said. "I'm buying it for me, well, it is for you to use but I bought it for purely selfish reasons. "I like this shampoo because it masks your stink and well I can't stand your hairy legs," He smiled at her and had walked off.

He had figured this would be easy, they had lived together for years before and that had been a simple process, but Beca had different feelings about it this time. She wouldn't say what it was exactly but he figured she had some fear that they wouldn't last if she officially moved in. The thing was she practically did live with him. She spent every night but Sundays.

Sunday night she would refuse to stay no matter what was going on or how late it had gotten. She insanely thought if she still kept her stuff in her apartment and slept there that one night, she and Jesse didn't live together. Jesse had gone along with it for the first few months but eventual he got sick of waking up alone on Mondays, so he recruited Chloe.

"So have you finished moving in yet? Tom can come over and do all the heavy lifting this weekend if you want," Chloe said one night while having dinner. Tom glared at his wife and Beca just about spit out her food.

"Um no, I have not finished moving in because I never started. I am perfectly content having my own place thank you very much," Beca said to her friend.

"You know that is totally selfish. I am sure there are tons of families searching for luxury accommodations. You are just using it as a storage shed." Chloe turned away from her friend, "Aren't I right Jesse."

"Absolutely, she is hording all that luxury space, you know a two bedroom with a view of the pool is hard to come by in this city." He nodded at Chloe and then smiled at Beca.

She looked at the two of them with disgust, "what, are you two working together now?"

"Oh no," Chloe started, "I am just concerned that is all, I mean there has to be some reason you won't live with him again. Has he acquired a smell? It's an unsightly toe fungus isn't it? Or…" she said looking at Jesse and making a sad face, "you just don't like him. That's it isn't it?"

Beca looked at Chloe then Jesse, one had a fake look of concern on her face the other was faking hurt. "Is this what it is going to be like every time we are together? You guys are going to tag team me until I give in?"

"Pretty much." "Yup" Chloe and Jesse said at the same time.

Beca threw up her hands and shook her head in irritation. Tom took a drink of his beer and then said to Beca, "Just do it so we don't have to listen to them anymore."

After two more group dates that ended this way Beca gave in. It wasn't that she didn't want to live with Jesse. She loved him and loved spending every second with him; she just feared the distance that had grown the last year they had lived together. She told him this the night she agreed to move in and he promised her it wouldn't happen.

"If we feel a change in the relationship we will deal with it. We will work at our problems this time not avoid them and run away." Jesse had said taking Beca's hand into his. "I love you Beca and I have no desire to spend another six years away from you. I am not going to let us break up again." The next day she gave her notice at her complex.

Slowly his new house became theirs. Beca's furniture replaced Jesses in the living room and her bedroom set filled the guest room. A condition of the move was that she could have her own space, so the gym became her mixing room, the weights moved to the garage and the treadmill to a corner of their bedroom. The only thing they had disagreed on were the awards hanging in her office. Jesse wanted to proudly display Beca's accomplishments; she wanted them hidden away.

"I don't want people making assumptions about me based on some stupid gold records. If someone is going to judge me I want it to be based on the music they hear." She had said when they had argued. Jesse thought she should be proud and let the world see all that she had accomplished, he wanted to hang them smack dab in the living room. Eventually they agreed to hang them in the hall upstairs. Strangers would never be up there but friends would, they would already know of her accomplishments and would have all judged her long ago.

Lastly they hung the Jim Tork original which had once hung in their first apartment. It fit perfectly over the living room fireplace, where it would hopefully remain for the rest of their lives.

Life was great. They were finally living together again; they could work during the day and come home to each other at night.

Jesse was busy at work. The news had spread how he had saved the day on two films in the span of two weeks and he had become the go to guy when a film had emergency scoring issues. A combination of the problem films coming in and the blockbuster hits that he usually worked on left him happy and busy.

Beca was keeping busy too. She was in the process of producing a new album for a popular female artist named Nina, and things weren't going so well. Nina had approached Beca with the desire to revamp herself, to change her image from pop princess to a legitimate artist. Beca had gone to work instantly giving her songs a harder edge and a more complex sound. Beca had even recruited other established artist to add their vocals to the young stars tracks, unfortunately Nina was starting to back pedal, which was driving Beca insane. Luckily she had an appearance scheduled in Europe so they had planned a week long break away from the studio. Jesse had worked a break into his current project too and they had planned their homecoming party, everyone was coming. Benji and Irene would arrive Wednesday, a few days before everyone else so that they could tour the city, Irene had never been to the West Coast.

Beca arrived home Tuesday night tired and irritated. "Another hard day at the office," Jesse asked giving his girlfriend a kiss on the forehead.

"She is driving me insane. I agreed to produce this album because I believed she had talent and she totally does, she is just choosing not to use it! She doesn't even realize the strings I had to pull to get people to work on this album and now she is saying she doesn't think some of them will work." Jesse handed Beca a juice pouch and frowned.

"I sat on the phone for hours with Chaka Zulu to figure out a time when we could record and…" Beca looked up to see Jesses face, he had no idea who she was talking about. "Sorry," she said, "Chaka is Luda's manager. Ludacris, you know the rapper, actor, producer? Anyways, he had worked us in a day to do some recording and she decides she wants to end studio work three days early!? It is such an insult! Who does she think she is blowing him off?! He has two Grammys! All she has ever done is date Zack Effron! I am so glad that I don't have to see her for a week, she is so disrespectful to me and my friends!"

Jesse hated to see Beca so frustrated and upset but he couldn't help but smile. His little five foot two inch girlfriend had just referred to Ludacris as a personal friend. It was going to take him some time to get used to her knowing so many important people in the music industry. "Well let's not think about it anymore. You don't have to see her or think about her for a week. But you do have to prepare yourself for all of your unruly friends being in our home. I think you should use this extra time off to clean the house." Beca took a sip from her juice pouch and stared at Jesse.

"Okay, or I can clean the house and you can watch." Beca smiled.

The next morning Jesse and Beca headed to the airport to retrieve Benji and his girlfriend. The two waited at luggage claim with signs that read '_Master Magician'_ and "_the lovely assistant_." Irene hugged Jesse and told him how great it was to see him again. She wrapped Beca in a hug and told her she was so glad to finally get to meet the famous Beca. Beji hugged Jesse and then Beca, "I am really glad you guys are back together, he was getting kind of pathetic," he whispered into Beca's ear, the two smiled at each other when they pulled away.

"So shall we take this luggage back to our place?" Jesse asked when they had collected all of the bags.

"Oh could we see some sights first? I am just so excited to see LA!" said Irene, her excitement was radiating off of her.

"Yeah," said Beca, "Let's go!" They started with the Hollywood Walk of Fame, then hit up the Chinese and Kodak Theaters. Beca pointed out some celebrities' homes and the Hollywood Sign. They were searching for a parking spot at Casa Vega when a bus drove by with a painting of Nina on its side.

"Oh I love her!" Irene said to no one in particular.

"Yeah I hear she is kind of annoying to work with," Jesse said with a wink at Beca.

"Really? Do you know people who have worked with her?" Irene asked excited. Jesse looked right at Beca.

"Yeah, _she_ is producing her new album." Jesse pulled into a parking spot and then smiled at Beca, she just rolled her eyes. Irene was at a loss for words. Benji spoke up.

"You should take this silence as a sign of great respect and awe." He smiled at Irene and placed a kiss on her cheek.

The next day the couples spent the morning at Venice Beach, grabbed some lunch at a little sandwich shop and then window shopped Rodeo Drive. Beca and Jesse weren't much for the tourist stuff but the look on Irene's face as she visited each place made the whole experience worthwhile. In fact they were having a blast. They couldn't help laugh as they walked down the block and Irene peeked into windows looking for celebrities. "Maybe we will get lucky and run into one at Disneyland on Sunday." Beca said to Irene.

"Yeah we have seen some there before. Summer break did just start. Celebrities could be there on vacation," Jesse added. Irene was excited by the idea and skipped on towards another shop window.

They were calling it an early night. Tomorrow was Friday and everyone would be flying in. Irene and Benji were going through Jesses DVD collection looking for something they could all watch with dinner. Beca and Jesse were in the kitchen microwaving popcorn and preheating the oven for pizza when Beca's phone rang. She checked the caller ID. She frowned at the phone, "It Nina, give me a sec." She answered the phone and left the kitchen. Jesse put the pizza in and carried the popcorn to his friends. After five minutes of waiting they started the movie, Benji and Jesse both knew Beca wouldn't care.

They had finished half the pizza when Beca walked into the living room. Jesse looked up to see that she was still on the phone. She momentarily pulled it from her ear and looked at him. "Hey Jesse, do you think maybe I could use your studio tonight?" Jesse was surprised. Beca spent tons of time in her room mixing and sampling music but she hadn't used his studio, he had offered but she said that she liked to use the ones at work.

"Of course you can. What's up?" He replied. Beca mouthed '_one sec'_ to him and went back to her phone. A few minutes later Beca came back. "I am really sorry about this you guys it looks like I have to do some work. Jesse a few people are going to stop by okay?"

Irene and Benji didn't mind that Beca had to work, they were wrapped up in the movie but Jesse was a bit concerned, it was just the look on her face, she looked a little frazzled. "Bec are you okay?" Before Beca could answer the doorbell rang, Beca and Jesse both walked over to answer it. Standing at the door was a petite blond and two huge body guards. Jesses stared open mouthed, "this is who is stopping by?" Jesse thought to himself.

Beca welcomed them in and went straight to business. "Okay they said they have an hour and that included the drive over here. I would have had us go to the studio but our house is so much closer to the airport and I figured recording here would buy us more time. Thank goodness Jesse has such a great set up," she stopped talking to the singer and gave her boyfriend a smile. "Let's get up stairs and set up before everyone else shows up." The two women and the huge body guards walked through the living room and up the stairs to Jesses sound room and studio.

Jesse walked into the living room. Irene's eyes were huge. "Was that who I think it was?"

"Yeah," Jesse replied, "That was Nina Tate."

"I love LA," Irene said then asked Jesse," is this normal for you? Does it happen all the time?!"

Jesse leaned back and shook his head, "No this is totally not normal!" He looked at his best friend Benji who just smiled and shook his head, "Well," Bengi started, "maybe this is what normal life is when you live with Beca Mitchell."

They sat back to watch the film, no one was really paying it much attention. They were all anxiously waiting to see who else was stopping by. Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang again. The three friends looked at each other as Jesse rose to get the door. Irene was bouncing in her seat and Benji was smiling at his girlfriend's excitement.

Jesse answered the door and before him stood ten people, some of them he recognized from tv. "Um hey, Beca is up in the studio I will take you guys there." He led the pack, Ludacris and his entourage, through the house.

"Nice crib," said the rapper nodding to Jesse and then to Benji and Irene. Jesse could hear Irene squeal with delight as they made their way up the stairs. He opened the door and let them all in taking a peek inside to see Beca. She had on her headphones and was moving between her soundboard and laptop. As the door closed he could hear her say, "okay guys let's do this."

A half an hour went by. Jesse, Irene, and Benji waited downstairs wondering what was going on above them. Jesse filled them in on the problems Beca had been having with the album, how Nina wanted to stick with her poppy sound despite her initial desires to go for something different and more mature. They figured she had changed her mind. Beca had said the Rapper had agreed to record something for the album, but that was before the young singer had insulted him. Beca must have worked some insane magic to get him over here.

Jesses attention was grabbed as the entourage moved down the stairs and out the house. He got up to get the door and the rapper stopped him, "you take care of her." Jesse nodded dumbly and closed the door behind the crowd.

Jesse, Irene, and Benji made their way up the stairs and over to the studio. Nina and her body guards were sitting on Jesses leather couch. Jesse wondered for a second how everyone had managed to squeeze into his room. He turned his attention back to Beca who was bent over her laptop making adjustments to whatever she had just recorded.

Jesse had watched Beca work a million times but for Benji and Irene it was a whole new experience. They watched her nod or shake her head as she made changes to the track. There were a ton of windows open on her compuer and they watched her click on one, make adjustments to it and the layer it onto another. The room was silence, since Beca wore headphones no one could hear what she was doing. Eventually she pushed back from the table and pulled her headphones down. "Ok it is pretty raw but it will give us an idea." She looked to Nina and nodded then hit play on her laptop.

Nina's voice sang out deep, smoky, and sultry. It was beautiful, Beca had been right the girl definitely had talent. Unlike any music the girl had done before there were no instrumentals, all they were hearing was her. Jesse could see why the girl had been scared, this was definitely not her usual pop, but it was something much better.

As the first verse ended a slight beat came in. Beca had obviously been developing this for some time; it was too good for her to have created just now. Jesse looked around the room everyone was listening intently; they were all nodding their heads to the beat. As the chorus ended and the bridge began, Jesse could hear how important the rappers presence in this song was. Beca had layered his vocals over the second verse. Nina's breathy singing and his powerful voice contrasted with each other in a beautiful way. There was no way you could hear this song and not stop and listen. As the song ended the instruments died out again leaving Nina repeating the same line.

"Well that should give us an idea. I think it is good. It needs some polishing, we can play with the vocals a bit maybe tweak the tempo here and there but overall it is ok. What do you guys think?" Everyone stared at Beca. They had just witnessed audio magic and she was cutting it apart. Jesse looked at Beca feeling his chest swell with admiration and love. She was so good, and he was so happy she was his.

Benji had a shocked look upon his face, "you just threw that together in the hour that we were all downstairs?"

"Well, most of it was already made, I just added Ludas bit and adjusted some things," she looked at her friends and they were all shaking their heads smiling at her.

Finally Nina spoke up, "I need to catch my flight," she said standing up. "But you were right, this is amazing. It is nothing like what I have done before but, well, you were right. We will do it your way from now on." She smiled at Beca and motioned for her body guards to follow her, "Oh and thanks for letting us use your studio Jesse."

A few minutes later they were gone. Beca hit save on her laptop and turned the room's lights off. "I hope you guys didn't eat all the pizza, is the movie ready?" And like that the craziness was over. Jesse looked at her and smiled, living with Beca Mitchell would never be normal.


End file.
